Tone it Tuesdays: a Heart-Pumping, Energizing Workout to Battle that Winter Slump

On this last edition of January's Tone it Tuesday series, Jenna Klane of the Training Fix has graciously shared with us a video from yesterday's workout to inspire us to get moving!

"A winter Monday is a day needed for movement.  There is not much to do around here when its 15 degrees out and after sitting around most of the weekend I needed to move this morning. Not every workout needs to be filled with high intensity, and super heavy weight loads.  I think getting strong is empowering, and extremely healthy as we age, but to be honest some days I don’t have it in me.  This doesn’t mean you can’t get a great sweat in. Just moving around for 30-60 minutes a day can do wonders for your mood and energy during the cold winter months.  Today I pulled out a few of my favorite exercise tools ( kettlebell, vipr, and sandbag) and put together a quick full body circuit that gave me a nice sweat and actually gave me some energy instead of draining me of all my energy.  What I like about this workout is its working in different planes of motion so its challenging my body in a very different way compared to when I just lift heavier weights.  Different stabilizers are forced to activate which equals more muscles recruitment, as well as a nice shock to the nervous system.  This shock on the nervous system is what gives you that little extra boost of energy.  Give this a try and let us know what you think."

Workout Video Link

Thank you Jenna for the motivation! Lately with life's business, I have put off doing any form of squats and so to get motivated once again, I have created the 30 day Squat challenge below : 

As Jenna said, moving around each day gives us the energy to survive the cold, winter months and feel good about ourselves.  January's "Tone it Tuesday" series has been a wonderful way to keep us motivated to do so, and I hope that these past few Tuesday monthly series, in general, have served as motivation for practicing a healthy lifestyle.

  In November, Creatively Lu was launched and the  November series of Thankful Tuesdays began. Then in December, we ran the series- Take Out Tuesdays which featured healthy tips when dining out. Finally, in January we have run the series- Tone it Tuesdays featuring Jenna Klane, who has  shared her 3 essential moves for mastering the booty,  her tips for healthy snacking-before, during, and after your workout, as well as the energizing workout today.

Rather than, continuously change out the Tuesday themes each month I am excited to announce that I have created 4 Tuesday series that will continue every month. Here is the Tuesday calendar from now on:

• On-Trend Tuesdays: a look at the hottest trends for that month

• Tacky Tuesdays: Here we will hold an intervention for the trends that just don't quite make the cut.

• Tranquil Tuesdays: Tips for creating inner peace.

and finally.......

• Tone it Tuesdays featuring Jenna Klane

Yup, that's right Jenna will continue to provide her tips for staying healthy!  And these Tuesdays will be featured over on the new website:

So keep an eye out for Jenna's February edition of Tone it Tuesdays over on Creativelylu.com in a few weeks! Below is your daily dose of inspiration, inspired by my friend Kelly who committed to living a healthy lifestyle over the summer and has successfully lost over 40 lbs during her journey.

Kelly Lennon with her motivational/workout coach, 3 year old nephew, Colin.
The Lennon Household, Fall 2013.

Create a toned Tuesday everyone!

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Friday Favorites: the Clothes Make the Girl

I'm pretty flipping excited to feature one of my favorite bloggers, cookbook authors, and Paleo expert Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan, who writes the blog "The Clothes Make the Girl".

Melissa is on a mission to be a "super fit, well-fed, dressed-to-kill, glossy-haired, Rock-n-Roll, tart-tongued detective", and she is definitely fulfilling all such things.

She has committed to practicing a healthy lifestyle by eating clean and incorporating yoga, meditation, CrossFit, running, and strength training into her daily routine.

Melissa's candid account of her struggle with weight loss (featured in her blog) is very relatable and inspiring. She is the first to admit that she didn't always eat clean:

"My parents were both exceptionally good cooks — my dad owned a restaurant and my mom won almost every cooking contest she entered. I was a chubby kid because I really liked food. And after broken ankles and playground taunts — at a bus stop, I was once unfavorably compared to a whale by one of the neighbor kids — I stuck with reading and practicing the piano and roller skating to the library. I don’t know how many gym classes I missed because I was “sick” or “forgot” my gym clothes. I do know that my P.E. attendance put my otherwise stellar grade point average in jeopardy."

"Even though I avoided sports, I secretly admired the athletic kids. They walked taller than the rest of us. When I was in 10th grade, my dad took me to Annapolis to see the Navy band play a concert, and for about three weeks, I was determined to get in shape so I could apply to the Naval Academy. I abandoned that dream because I was incapable of doing pushups and situps — and I was too embarrassed and overwhelmed to ask for help.)"

However, Melissa did not give up on her mission to get in shape. One healthy hobby she enjoyed practicing was roller-blading. In 2001, Melissa moved to Austin, TX where she met a bunch of other woman who shared her passion for rollerblading. Together they formed the Texas Rollergirls, the original Flat Track Roller Derby that started in Austin and spread across the world! 

Appearing on the Today Show and Good Morning America, Melissa began to create a name for herself in the Roller Derby world. As a result, the publishing company Simon & Schuster published her book she had written about her Roller Derby experiences, titled "Roller Girl Totally True Tales from the Track".

Left: "Roller Girl: Totally True Tales from the Track" by Melissa Joulwan

Right: Melissa (Middle) during her professional Roller Derby days.

In 2007, Melissa began adding Cross Fit classes to her active lifestyle. In 2009, she switched to a Paelo lifestyle. By gaining strength, finally sleeping 8 hours a night, and eliminating dairy and gluten from her diet, Melissa finally "made friends" with food and her body. And while I could go on and on about Melissa and her amazing blog & paleo cookbooks, I will let you all learn a little more about Melissa for yourselves. Below is a Q+A with Melissa: 

Lu: How was the title "the Clothes make the girl” created?

Melicious: I started my blog while I was working at my full-time job for a web development agency. I was bored at work and was a little obsessed with fashion blogs, so I decided to start my own, just as a fun outlet for writing. At the same time, I was also changing my eating habits and training to get really fit. After a while, I realized I wanted to write about those things more than my outfits. Little by little, the "real" blog — where I talk about nutrition, recipes, training, meditation, and how to have an awesome life — emerged. That was in 2008, and I had about five readers. Now about 400,000 people read it every month.

Lu:  What are some of the more notable/ “happier” changes you’ve experienced since switching to a Paleo lifestyle?

Melicious: Eating Paleo has changed my life in many ways, but these are my two favorites: (1) I was a lifelong terrible sleeper. Now that I eat high-quality carbs, sufficient fat and protein, and no junk, I sleep like a champ for 7-9 hours every night. (2) I used to need to eat every 2-3 hours or I'd get cranky and droopy. Now I can go for 4-6 hours between meals, and when I'm hungry, it's simply hunger — not moodiness that makes me feel like I'm going to stab someone.

Lu: If you had to describe a Paleo diet to a newcomer, how would you describe it?

Melicious: The version of the paleo template I follow is based on eating nutrient-dense foods that make me healthier: high-quality protein like grassfed beef and pastured chicken, tons of vegetables and fruits, some starches like sweet potatoes and plantains, and natural fats like coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, and nuts for a little treat. It's real food and it's delicious.

Lu: What is one major thing you miss about being a Rollergirl?

Melicious: Oh, definitely bashing into people and making them fall down! And putting on my uniform — it was really fun to pretend to be a glamour girl then beat up on people.

Lu: What inspired you to write the cookbooks, Well Fed + Well Fed 2?

Melicious: Eating paleo made me fall in love with playing in the kitchen, and I wanted to share that with other people. I think cooking can be intimidating for people and I wanted to show that it can be like play time that also provides nourishment. I love cooking because I get to be creative and then I get to eat — two of my favorite things!

Thanks Melissa for taking the time to speak with me and to share your story with the Creatively Lu community! 

 And now for your dose of inspiration, inspired by Melissa.

Melissa during a Cross-Fit workout,
rocking her "Well Fed" socks.
Quote by: Henry Ford

Create a healthy & happy Friday everyone!

*To learn more about Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan and her blog "the Clothes Make the Girl"

Check out her website, Facebook, & Twitter.

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Tone it Tuesdays: 3 Moves to Get the Most Out of Your Booty

Jenna Klane Nelson of the Training Fix

shows us the 3 staple exercises needed

to master those glutes.

Photo Courtesy of: Jess McDougall

I am excited to feature  Jenna Klane Nelson, personal trainer and owner of the Training Fix in Easton, MA for this week's Tone it Tuesdays post. Jenna is the perfect person to offer tips for safe and effective workouts, as she specializes in posture and movement assessment.

At her training studio, the Training Fix, Jenna  performs postural analysis and functional movement screenings for each new client in order to understand each person's postural behavior and functionality. By correctly finding where the problems lie, Jenna is able to effectively create a unique program for each client that will help him or her to improve vitality and strength.

I, like Jenna, believe that it is absolutely essential to clean up any faulty movement patterns in order to achieve effective strength training. Contrary to popular belief, strength training is an essential component for  weight-loss, as well as toning the body. While cardio can also assist with the weight-loss process, it only breaks down your body's existing tissue, thus, leaving you with that soft, "skinny fat" booty. It is strength training that actually changes your body's composition, giving you that all over toned look.

Today Jenna will explain why we should master  the fundamentals so that strength training can become a safe and effective part of our daily  lifestyle. She will also share why we should love our booty and share 3 videos featuring the 3 essential moves for getting our glutes toned and poppin'.

The Training Fix

"If I am doing a glute exercise, I better feel it in my glutes.  If I don’t then I need to clean it up and get it right.  I think the glutes are big, beautiful muscle.  Mine have been large since I was about 5 years old.  I used to hate it !!! Once I realized they weren't going anywhere I decided to embrace it and make them as nice as I could.  I love doing glute work.  For starters, most of the major lifts that work the glutes really work your entire body ( squats, lunges, dead-lifts, step ups, thrusters) .  Killing two birds ( or ten) with one stone is my kind of workout.   The biggest thing I have noticed with clients over the years is that they weren't really feeling their glutes when they should.  Bottom line is if you don’t feel it, its not turning on… and that's a problem. We are all created differently and sometimes our posture creates compensations in how we perform our lifts.  For myself I am very mobile in my mid and low back.  For years I thought I had great hip extension when I really broke down the movement I was doing the lift from my back and not from my glutes.  That is why I wasn't feeling my glutes.  Seems obvious, but its not always that easy to figure out when you are working out".

"True hip extension gets the glutes to activate to their fullest potential. Strong glutes are a bonus for both men and women for a few reasons:

1. Strong glutes can help eliminate low back pain.
2. Strong , shapely glutes are nice to look at  better than saggy , weak glutes.
3. When you really get your glutes to engage you will suddenly develop this power in your lifts that you were never capable of before".


"Here are 3 staple exercises we do at The Training Fix that require full hip extension to be done correctly. I have made videos of myself doing each one with both the proper and faulty technique".

1. Hip Thruster

"For the hip thruster you will start with your head and shoulders on a bench.  Your feet will be on the floor directly under your knees.  Driving through your heels you will lift your hips up using your glutes. In the finished position you should have a straight line from your shoulder to your hip to your knee.  The video on top shows me with poor form and the video on the bottom is with the correct technique".

"You want to make sure that you get your hips up high enough so that you get that straight line throughout the body, but you want to make sure you get it by using your glutes and not your low back.  You also want to make sure that you don’t let your rib cage flare up into the air.  I am very mobile through my mid back and would naturally love to do this lift by letting my rib cage lift way up.  It almost create a rainbow shape throughout the torso.  This exercise is very challenging for me and I feel my glutes plenty by just using bodyweight.  Work your way up to 3 rounds of 20 repetitions and at then you can consider loading it".

Hip Thruster Video

2. Step Ups

"Step Ups are such a simple and highly effective exercise. The problem is I find that most people leave out some of the key elements that make it so good for you.  First off you want to make sure the foot of the stabilizing leg is fully on the step.  Keep it planted and drive trough that heel as you step up.  Make sure to keep a nice, tall spine throughout the movement.  When you get to the top you want to make sure that you fully extend the hip of the stabilizing leg.  It should be a straight line from the shoulder, to the hip, to the ankle.  In this video the video on the left shows me doing this with good technique and the video on the right shows the faulty patterns I discussed above".

Step Ups Video

3. Planks

"Planks ? Not many people would think of planks as a glute exercise.  Ultimately they would be considered a “core” exercise, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work the glutes as well.  If you do these with good technique at the end of a good workout, you can’t tell me that you don’t feel your glutes.  When doing a plank your elbows should be directly under your shoulders, your legs should be straight out with the knees fully extended.  Your butt should NOT be up in the air. You should have a straight line from your shoulder to your hip.  Take a look at the video below to see two videos comparing good and bad technique. I think its pretty obvious but the top video is clearly being done incorrectly".

Plank Video

"So, whether its for function, for looks, for strength, or for power. You can’t lose by getting the most out of your glutes in the gym".

Thanks Jenna for the booty tips! I will be sure to incorporate these movements into my schedule. And to make sure that I really work on my least favorite exercise, the plank, I have created a 30 day plank challenge:

Create a booty-poppin Tuesday everyone! Below is your daily dose of inspiration inspired by Jenna and her adorable son Henry (who you may remember from Wordless Wednesdays).

Jenna and her son, Henry
Summer 2013

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Tone it Tuesdays: The 8 Essential Steps for Living a Healthy Lifestyle

With the New Year, we awake from our food comas having overindulged in holiday sweets & treats. We feel more ready than ever to remove those clothes hanging from our treadmills and lace-up our new pair of sneakers. Yet, with the introduction of extremely strict meal plans and intense workouts into our routines, we go from one form of overindulgent extremeness to another. And, just like the holidays, there comes a time in which we feel “burnt out.” We hit that point where we've had enough. 

We’re overspent, both physically and mentally, and so we shift back from the winter health phase into the food phase again. Ready to indulge in the upcoming Valentine's Day chocolates; only to shift back to the health phase again, as preparation for our spring vacations. Like a never-ending, game of ping-pong, we go back and forth between the two forms of extreme. 

Marketing campaigns recognize this vulnerability and quickly time their ads accordingly. For example, the big discount chains adorn their shelves with alluring, Christmas-themed cookies and candies, as preparation for Christmas time. Yet, when we return in January to those same stores, the shelves have been restocked with workout tanks, water bottles, and even “healthy” cookies.

Rather than following a “quick fix diet” or participating in the latest workout fad, I encourage you to finally finish the ping-pong game and simply follow a healthy lifestyle. Call me crazy, but I believe that life is meant to be lived, rather than endured. 

 By “toning up” a little more each week, you will create a healthy body that feels good both on the inside and out.  And so it is with great pleasure that I kickoff the first of the Tone Up Tuesday series with the 8 essential steps you need to know for beginning (and maintaining) a healthy lifestyle.

 I want you to feel like you can go on vacation and not panic that you couldn't transport your kitchen and gym with you. Read and follow these 8 steps with you often for the next week. Pin it, snap a picture, whatever you need to do. Soon, they will become healthy habits. Then we will meet back here next Tuesday to expand a little more on the workout portion of the plan. Until then, here your dose of inspiration to keep you feeling motivated.  

Photo Courtesy  of: Kristin Haus
Brown County State Park
Nashville, IN

Create a great and "Toned-Up" Tuesday!

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