I just finished a good book, The Swing by Tracy Reifkind. I was going to say a good kettlebell book but it's so much more than that. Tracy Reifkind had been overweight her whole life. She weighed 250 pounds the first time she picked up a kettlebell at age 41. Through a change in mindset, an overhaul of her eating, and dedication to swinging a kettlebell several days per week, she lost 120 pounds and became an RKC kettlebell instructor. Her transformation is one of the most inspiring things I've read in years. Let me give you a few quotes from Tracy:

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"I came to the conclusion that truly healthy and fit people don't have to think about how to become healthy and fit, it's who they are--it's not a chore, a punishment, or even a choice. Forget second nature; for them, it is first nature. The question for me then became: how do you make something first nature?"

"When you are in the zone, you eat right and you do your workouts as if they have always been a part of your life and they will never not be a part of your life. It's what you do, it's who you are, and it officially becomes your lifestyle--it changes from something you're doing into something you are."

"You know, there was a time shortly after I started my diet that I had the thought of never, ever being able to go back to the way I used to eat. I thought about never again eating my everyday lunch of three cheeseburgers and six chocolate chip cookies, and I felt sad for a few moments. I felt like I had just been sentenced to a lifetime of no fun in punishment for my decades of bad behavior. The sadness passed once I realized how ridiculous it was to mourn the passing of an extremely destructive habit."

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It was fascinating to read about how her perception of herself and food changed. This isn't your typical "here is the history of kettlebells and here are some exercises" book. It's about her inner transformation. She gives details, of course. She shares her workouts. She gives incredibly thorough instruction about how to swing a kettlebell. She shares the food plan that turned her into a really buff chick, which is, surprise, real food, portion control, nothing off limits, and a little intermittent fasting. I was excited to read that like me, she eats basically the same meals most of the week. She also includes one high calorie day and one low one. She talks about the importance of preparing your own food and includes lots of recipes and how-tos. 

One interesting part of the book talks about how she accidentally regained 20 pounds by eating her normal healthy food but getting loose with the portions. She went back to eating her basic meals in set portions 4 days per week and lost 10 pounds really quickly. Then she put her high calorie day back and lost another 3. The other 7 she considers part of an acceptable range. She doesn't try to live at her lightest weight ever and understands that she's not going to keep losing scale weight as she continues to get stronger. It was fascinating to read her story. She sounds like one of us!

It slightly threw me that she suggests women eat 1200 calories per day for fat loss. That was her target with the understanding that most days she would go over it. She says that the closer she stuck to that goal, the faster her fat loss. There are a couple of considerations. For example, her only exercise was going for walks and swinging a kettlebell for 20 minutes 2-3 times per week. She wasn't training for a marathon or going to crossfit or anything, so you have to keep that in mind when looking at her suggested intake. Also, she had a high-calorie day every week so she didn't burn out. She doesn't seem to have run into any of the metabolic slowdowns or issues from a continually low calorie intake. And finally, at 250, she had a lot of stored energy to work with. It wasn't like an obsessive 110 pound overexerciser eating in the 1200 range with no breaks.

I would encourage anyone who reads this to do the standard skwigg move of incorporating any ideas that really resonate with you and disregarding anything that makes you tremble and grind your teeth. There is plenty that resonates here! I couldn't get to my kettlebells fast enough after I finished this book.

I think we've talked about the mysterious pink slime that's added to cheap ground beef. It's normally inedible fatty bits found near the hide that are spun in a centrifuge to separate out the lean protein. Then it's sprayed with ammonia to kill bacteria (because it probably comes into contact with the dirty hide). Then they can put that in your ground beef as a filler and not tell you because technically it's all beef. Yum, right?!

I had a big weird conversation with my butcher this morning. He assures me that he grinds up chuck roasts to make ground chuck, sirloin to make ground sirloin, etc. The fresh ground beef behind the counter is high quality, nothing funky going on, and the prices reflect it. The prices of the grass fed and organic beef really reflect it. However if you buy generic "ground beef" you're living on the edge, or at least living on bland tasting burger. 

This fearless man conducted a pink slime taste test. Blah! 

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/pink-slime-taste-test/

I agree about the juice thing. I cooked 4 grass fed burgers today and at one point was trying to figure out how to pour some of the liquid off of them because it was getting ridiculous. Real beef is super juicy.

Do you eat ground beef? Do you eat whatever or are you kind of a freak about getting the best? I'm a freak unless I'm in a fast food restaurant. At that point, you're already taking your life into your hands, so why not just go for it. :-)

Rest Day 4 - Pilates happens. I had to move, breathe, stretch, and flex a little bit for mood-boosting purposes. I don't feel like myself if I don't move at all. Walking the dog every day in the fresh air and sunshine would normally be enough, but right now the walks are too short to deliver the full effect. I did an hour of Pilates mat work. My favorite DVD is Pilates for Beginners with Kristin McGee. It's slow, precise, and nicely cued, plus she's a great instructor. I sat out the push-up part. Well, technically, I did one, felt it in my shoulder, and thought, oh yeah, duh...

It's the day after Pizza Day and my weight is either the same or down .2 pounds depending on how I stand on the scale. That always amazes me. I remember when I used to have shockingly huge water fluctuations of 5-6 pounds or more. Like after a Body for Life free day, remember that horror? That happened whenever I would go on some squeaky clean, low-sodium, and low-carb, pre-contest, lunatic diet. If would so much as eat a cracker I'd turn into a water balloon overnight. HATED THAT! The solution of course is to eat dirty. :-) If I don't walk around in some fake, temporary, depleted, dieter state, my weight won't do anything crazy. It was Leigh Peele's "get lean enough to like yourself bloated" comment that made me see the insanity of a false lean. Any diet kickstart, induction, rapid weight loss, whooshing phase is bad news. If you're lean because you've flushed all the water, glycogen, and salt out of your system, well, hello, the fat is still there and the water will be right back. It's a lot of drama for nothing.

Rest Day 3 - Gooooood morning!!!! I am in a crazily good mood today because it's my weekend and it's PIZZA DAY. Tuesday is always a rest day so it feels completely normal to be a slacker. I walked Ripley barely a block, took a shower, and now I'm preheating the oven. I generally have pizza and ice cream for breakfast on Tuesday while watching some fine reality television. Today will be the Dog Whisperer episode with that dog who is obsessed with pinecones.

My pizza today will be a Palermo's Primo Thin Margherita (780 calories) and a pint of chocolate peanut butter Haagen-Dazs (1190 calories), for a delicious 1970 calorie meal. I'll wait 10-12 hours and then I'll have dinner with my husband. Tonight it will likely be a salad, 2 tacos, and 2 Joe-Joes cookies. That's a completely normal Tuesday for me. I know I can do it and not gain weight because every week I do it and don't gain weight. So, that's how I know. :-)

Based on the last year or two of tinkering with my eating, I'm sure that the way I eat all the time is exactly what I need to maintain my weight or gradually get a little leaner, without any exercise. When I add exercise, that just means I get to be even more flexible and have even bigger portions, or I suppose lose more fat if I weren't inclined to eat up the difference. I think John Barban's Anything Goes Diet took that to the extreme with the idea that you should eat around your BMR for fat loss and let all daily activity be bonus. I don't think food intake needs to be quite that low every day (unless you're trying to win a bikini contest), but you definitely don't want to get into a situation where you have to exercise, maybe excessively, in order to maintain weight. That points to a food problem. Addressing the food is a lot easier (for me) than fear-based calorie burning. Although I may have some big eating on my weekends (NOT overeating or out of control eating), my weekdays are pretty light and tight. Happily! I love my weekday food and I know those days are what keep me lean. 

Last night I was extra careful not to roll over and sleep on my bad shoulder. It totally worked because the shoulder only felt a little stiff this morning, not like someone had stuck a flaming steak knife in it.

Yes, I'm still reading "skinny girl" fluff. Is She Naturally Thin or Disciplined? profiles 101 fit women of all ages. It includes a color photo, height, weight, age, clothing size, and details about what they do to stay fit. Spoiler alert: they're all disciplined. As the author points out, "Maintaining one's weight is very similar to money management--building wealth does not happen by accident, and people who are 'born rich' will become poor if they are careless."

This book was actually mind-numbingly boring because they all do the same thing. They exercise regularly, eat real food, control portions, avoid processed food, fast food, sugar, white flour, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and industrial oils. Most of them eat 5-6 meals per day but they don't know why. One woman said, "To keep my body from storing fat cells, I eat every two and a half hours." That made me LOL. There were a few amusing anecdotes. One woman tries on her prom dress every 3 months to make sure it still fits. A model points out that measurements are everything, a low number on the scale doesn't necessarily eliminate bulges. Another woman, struggling with weight gain for the first time in her life, came to the horrifying realization that her daily Starbucks "snack" was over 900 calories.

There were a couple of vegans and at least one paleo person, but the profiles are almost indistinguishable. The author seems to have weeded out or gently modified the words of any meal-skippers or non-snackers to support her "lots of small meals" belief. Certainly that approach can work but nobody questions it. The book would have been more interesting if she'd included some rebels and outliers instead of only those who read Shape and Oxygen.

I liked the photos and stats. I loved that it included women in their 50s and 60s. I didn't like that all the profiles blurred into one generic narrative. However, maybe that's because what it takes to be lean and fit is pretty universal--exercise, real food, and portion control.

Be warned that if you're getting the Kindle version (which was only $1.99!!!), the 101 color photographs make this an enormous freaking file. I had to jump on WiFi and it still took quite a few minutes to download. It's not the normal zippy-zip and have your new book in a couple of seconds experience. Also, there are some comically bad typos. Like mixing up "fat" and "flat." One of the women says, "I like a fat stomach so I avoid wheat." I don't think that's what she meant. The Kindle version could have used some proofreading. 

This book has some real flaws but if you're a sucker for photos, stats, and success stories (as I am), it's still moderately entertaining in a fluffy sort of way. It's also mega-reinforcement that there are no shortcuts. Whether these women claim they are naturally thin or working really hard, they're all engaged in the same behaviors with the same level of discipline. Nobody is lounging around eating junk food, not exercising, and somehow still a size 2. So, it's a bit of a motivating reality check.