Boosting Your Immune System

Any time someone sneezes or coughs, I instantly get tensed.  I think of the many germ particles floating in the air, looking for the perfect body to camp out and make a new home.  As hard as I try to shield them, they move too fast, even for me.  The moment their “owner” pushes them out of their body, they are released and no running or rolling the window down can save you from them.  That is why it is imperative to boost your immune system to ward off any illnesses seeking to disrupt your spring and summer-time vacation plans.  Essentially, your immune system acts as a protector against germs so that your body will not shut down.  Incorporating healthy eating choices into your diet and generally understanding your body and how your immune system works allows you to develop a more conscious and healthy lifestyle.

We inhale thousands upon thousands of germs each day.  Take a moment to think about that.  Each time you breathe, you are breathing in millions of germs surrounding you, just floating around in the air without a care in the world.  Knowing this, it makes sense to prep your body for illnesses attempting to attack it.  That's why we boost our immune system.  The same way a company gives out incentives to its employers to boost or strengthen the morale within the workplace so that everyone is happy and on the same page, is the same way our immune systems are boosted.  We want our immune system strengthened so that when germs (bacteria and viruses) attempt to enter our body and shut it down, it will serve as a blocker against them.

Ways to boost your immune system:

1. Drink water - we want to flush out the toxins from our bodies.  The way to do that is staying hydrated.  Another benefit is it helps digest food.  A strong digestive system allows nutrition to distribute adequately.
2. Eat smart, eat healthy - eating gobs of hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, pizza, and drinking soda sounds like a good time, and it's an even better time for those germs to slip in and take over because your immune system is not receiving any nutrients from these types of foods.  Citrus fruits loaded with Vitamin C, foods rich in protein (chicken, fish, turkey, lean cuts of beef), quinoa, black beans, spinach, lemon, ginger, garlic, broccoli, kale, sweet potatoes, all are better alternatives for boosting your immune system.
3. Adequate amounts of sleep - it goes without saying; if you do not get enough sleep, your body will shut down on you.  It needs rest to refuel energy levels so that you can do what you did the day before 10 x's better the next day. 
4. Proper hygiene - it is simple; wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, brush your teeth, wash your hair, face and body.  Period.
5. Check-ups - it is necessary to make sure your vitals are still vital and your ticker is still ticking. 
6. Exercise - this one is my favorite, naturally.  Maintaining a consistent workout plan throughout your week strengthens your body, while your blood is able to flow easier and pumps rapidly.

In order to stay healthy, we have to be healthy.  Learn how to take care of your body and protect yourself. 

What Is a Fitness Model?

I love receiving questions from people wanting to enter fitness modeling or general interests in the sport itself.  While I am no longer considered a novice in the sport, I am certainly not a veteran or a pro.  But I cannot help but feel a sense of pride when I am asked questions about fitness modeling and hear myself speaking in a way that suggests I’ve been in the sport for years.  I can only speak on what I’ve researched (and I did a lot of research before getting into this) and what I’ve experienced.

So, for inquiring minds, fitness modeling is modeling one’s physical form or physique.  Think of body building competitions or Arnold Schwarzenegger.  When you enter fitness modeling competitions you are competing with others in your desired division.  These divisions include bikini, figure, physique (men and women), fitness, and body building (men and women).  Each division has a different body type requirement:

·         Bikini (female) – usually seen as lean, visible muscle definition but not more muscular than other female fitness division.  Bikini fitness models are classified as exotic, curvaceous, sexy and flirty. 

·         Figure (female) – well defined and visible muscle definition.  While female figure competitors are not as overly flirty on stage during their posing, they are still considered appealing to the eye due to size, shape and sculpting of their muscular form.

·         Physique (male and female) – muscle shape, size and proportion are determining factors within this division, for both men and women.  Muscle size is a size down from body building.

·         Fitness (female) – this is a size down from figure competitors.  They are leaner in size but still have relative muscle definition that determines their overall ranking. 

·         Body Building (male and female) – muscle size, shape and proportion is the largest of all categories. 

Depending on your size, ability to gain muscle mass and compete determines what division you should be competing in.  I chose bikini because of my body type, ectomorph.  I decided, for myself, this division was more along my speed and one I could keep up with in training, rather than trying to gain massive amounts of muscle mass to compete as a figure or physique competitor.  This worked out for me.  This is not to say everyone is cut out to be a bikini model.  Some may chose figure or women’s body building.  It is the same for the men’s divisions. 

The decision should ultimately be yours, one that you will have no regrets and feel happy throughout the entire training and competing process.  After one of my competitions, I saw a fellow bikini competitor crying when we got off stage.  I spoke to her coach to find out what was wrong with her.  The young lady felt as if she did not do as well as she had hoped and wanted to quit.  After learning she was unhappy with her body development and how the process was not as enjoyable as she thought it would be, I asked her if she thought bikini was the division she wanted to compete in.  She thought about it and said no.  We sat and watched most of the show until it was time to get back on stage and she said became mesmerized by the figure competitors.  I told her she may want to consider it but to make sure the decision and experience was one she would be content with.  She agreed to take some time to think about it but would do another show in the figure division. 

Your body takes time to develop and mature.  The same can be said about your mental state around body building/fitness modeling competitions.  Competing is not for everyone.  I can honestly say I never thought I would like fitness modeling but have grown to enjoy it more than I ever thought I could.  One word to best describe fitness competitions: exhilarating.  You meet like-minded individuals that have prepped just as hard if not harder than you for their 15 minutes (if that) on stage to pose and smile.  Some of the things to take into account when prepping for a competition is:

·         Tanning (2 coats and a touch-up)

·         Hair and makeup (women)

·         Jewelry (women)

·         Suits

·         Diet prep (6-8 weeks)

·         Posing

·         Training

It can be thrilling but also overwhelming, and it takes a person that is willing to jump through all the hoops to give their body the shine they’ve worked hard to prep for.  Ask yourself, can I do this and is it worth it?  What am I getting into this for?  The decision is yours.

What Does Your Body Type Say About You?

Ever wonder how someone can lose or gain weight faster than you?  Or how a person can gain muscle and look shredded by practically looking at a set of dumbbells, while it takes you much longer to gain even a “bump” in your biceps?  I get questions all the time from people wondering how I stay so lean.  I used to remark it had a lot to do with my genes.  However, I realized it was mostly due to my body type that it was harder for me to gain size, muscle and ultimately remain so thin.  Knowing and understanding your body type helps you become more aware of your body and the nutritional needs and workouts to remain healthy and reach your fitness goals.

Let’s breakdown the 3 different body types:

·         Mesomorph – One word description: muscular.  Mesomorphs can gain muscle relatively easily than any other body type.  They are considered the most energetic, athletic looking body type of the other two, being physically capable to perform several activities.  Their thick, muscular bones are credited to their rectangular shape.  Mesomorphs have well-defined chests, shoulders, buttocks, thighs and calves.  They sound like Greek Gods, don’t they?  Well, there’s always a flaw somewhere.  Mesomorphs aren’t the most flexible, and even though fat is distributed evenly throughout their bodies, if they are not active or involved in some form of physical activity to maintain their muscle size and shape, they can become overweight.  As a result, it is imperative that mesomorphs are conscious of their diet, consuming low-fats and low-calories.

·         Ectomorph – Better known as the slim Jim’s of the body types, are lean.  Ectomorphs have a high metabolism and cannot gain weight easily.  They are usually tall and slender (some may even say lanky with long arms and legs), with a delicate build, narrow hips and pelvis.  Ectomorphs do not receive as much love as the other body types because of their build and ability to burn calories when they sleep.  As much as people think ectomorphs have an edge in the competition, gaining muscle mass or size is very difficult.  Specialized workouts and a high-calorie diet is essential for ectomorphs muscle and weight gain. 

·         Endomorph – Soft and curvy, endomorphs tend to be very shapely.  Endomorphs have the most body fat and prone to excessive weight gain than the other two body types.  Weight is distributed to middle and lower half of their bodies.  Endomorphs are typically shorter and stockier, slow metabolism, and not-so well defined muscles.  To lose weight, endomorphs are encouraged to include cardio and weight-lifting within their fitness routine, as well as a low fat, low calorie diet. 

So, based on that information, if someone were to look at me they would see that I am an ectomorph, as clear as the blue sky.  I am sneered and jeered quite often because of my ability to eat relatively anything I want and not gain weight as quickly as others do.  I had to understand why this was so and how to educate others on what they needed to do to reach their fitness goals.  I never knew about body types, but when it was brought to my attention everything finally made sense.  I could look at someone and have them describe to me their eating habits, their workout regimen, and their weight and determine what their body type was and what was needed to reach their goals from a nutrition and fitness standpoint.  It’s all about educating yourself and educating others that helps you understand your health journey and working with others to create their own.  Know your body type, listen and observe what your body is saying to you.  You have to live with it every day.  You might as well understand it, learn from it, and pass your discoveries on to other people.

The Joys of Being an Ectomorph; My Body Type

As I've stated in earlier posts, I am an ectomorph.  I was not made known of this until I started taking fitness more seriously and got into fitness modeling.  At that point, it was important to learn my body. I couldn't figure out why I could not gain weight or keep muscle, no matter how much I ate, how much I lifted, and how much I prayed for the weight gain (exaggerating).  I dismissed it and said it must be genetic, so I better eat all I can now because when I get older it is not going to be the same.  This was easy to do, but being that I was now competing and showing off my body against other females who could pack on more muscle in a day than I could in a month made me more alert and wanting to know more about my body and what I needed to do to gain size.

The basics: an ectomorph body type is lean/skinny, less muscle mass, small bones and joints, high metabolism, and essentially, everyone hates you because you are this way.  Maybe not so much the latter, but not much of a stretch.  Because your body is already lean you have sort of an edge in the competition, but not by much.  You still have to gain and maintain muscle mass.  This is probably the hardest part. 


Because our bodies naturally burn a lot of calories and our metabolism is high, ectomorphs are advised to keep cardio training at a minimum.  Cardio is still essential, but it can include certain types of cardio workouts such as circuit training or HIIT style (kettle bell swings, push ups, sprints, etc.).  These should be kept to at least 30 minutes. Workouts such as dead lift, lateral pulls, jump squats with the bar, dumbbell curls, calf raisers, bench press, squats (the list goes on and on) are vital in muscle growth, in addition to eating the right nutrients and supplement intake (amino acid, protein shake, creatin).  Some are against ectomorphs taking supplements because our bodies do not need it.  However, if you are in a sport like body building or just want to gain it is essential in getting them into your system because of how it works consistently with your workouts and dieting.  At least for me it does.

One other challenge I continued running into was eating.  I did not know what to eat, how to eat, when to eat, etc.  All I knew was that I had to eat properly because my brain has been trained that when your body feasts on improper eating habits (fried fatty foods, high sodium, high glucose, fructose, sucrose, dextrose...sugar) it will suffer and the end results, at least the ones I've seen in my family, are not good.  My mother suffers from high blood pressure which has resulted in her having multiple strokes.  I saw this and immediately wanted to change my eating habits and maintain an active, healthy lifestyle.  Everything comes with a price.  Literally.  The price of organic vs. non organic is about $5, and that is not an exaggeration from the stores I shop at.  Or taking organic out of the equation, a box of cookies at $2.50 vs. a bag of kale chips at $5.60.  Seriously, if you don't grow your own foods you're liable to go broke if you live on a budget and trying to eat healthy.  This is a sacrifice I was willing to make for competing.  The key to remember for ectomorphs is we can essentially eat what we want, in moderation of course, but smart and healthy.  Breaking up large meals into smaller portion sized meals throughout the day is beneficial.

 

At the end of the day, ectomorphs are rare and unique in true form.  While our bodies, for the most part, appear lean and lanky, there are tricks of the trade to learn in order to even out our body, and by that I mean shaping it into a form that suits us.  My form consists of tightness and definition, one that I am proud to say took hard work to develop, so naturally I cannot go back to the way I was just to start over again.

Let's go to school; my body and how I view it vs. other's opinions

So I'm one of those skinny folks in the world that doesn't like being reminded that I'm skinny. In fact, as I've gotten older, I hate it. Just like (I really don't like using this word) fat people generally don't like being called fat, I don't like to be called skinny. I look at my body everyday, lived in this thin skin for 29 years so I kinda know how I look by now. I don't need a constant reminder. But I had to look at the people that were dishing out the reminders. People who weren't happy in their own thick skin. Yeah, I said it. Now, I can make fun of myself; I know my body, the quirks & things that generally make me look odd. Other people doing it though, I can't say I love it too much. I think it's because the place that some people come from with their criticism is a mean spirited place to tear and/or wear me down. Criticism is ok but coming from people that don't have to live with the results OR aren't happy with their own selves so they take it out on people who are happy with themselves and their bodies is comical but sad. Why put me down? If I haven't said anything negative about your body why say anything about mine? And if you're not happy with your body why take it out on me? Here's a tip, honey boo boo: do something about it!

I've decided, rather than tear down these individuals as they tried to do me, I would educate them, take them to school. I can show better than I can tell, so I decided to turn what they tried to deem as ugly, awkward and negative into something beautiful and positive. And look at me now! I'm healthy and I'm in fitness modeling, and my "skinny" body is actually appealing to some people. Who knew right?

I don't want this to sound like an angry post or come off as condescending and braggadocios. It's more of a teaching tool. You have no idea how long I've had to live with people who have told me my skinny-self wasn't much and I needed to eat more meat. Well, I do eat but I eat healthy and in moderation. 

At the end of the day, I use all criticism to push and motivate myself that much harder. I never thought I would become a teacher but I guess I am. It's a grueling job and my pay may not seem all that great but my reward is turning the ignorant into conscious believers. Life is a lesson and class is definitely in session. 

Wherever my toes go, I follow....except on stage

I can stand perfectly erect, chin up, chest out, hands at my sides, knees pointing as forward as they can (they're the knobbiest looking knees you'd ever care to see).  My feet, on the other hand face each other.  That's right, I'm pigeon-toed.  I'm a solid 5'8, all legs, small torso, boyish body, athletic build, the tiniest ankles practically in the world, freakishly long arms, sticks for legs and size 10 feet.  Add the fact that I am pigeon-toed to all of that and you have a very interesting looking specimen. I never thought it was such a big deal until I became self-conscious about my outward appearance and how the rest of the world saw me.  If I saw myself like this, what did everyone else see? 

My workouts are quite comical, to say the least.  I often take pictures of myself working out in the gym and post them on Instagram or Facebook and notice how I'm even pigeon-toed when I workout.  Lunges, step ups, squats, running on the treadmill, you name it.  If it's a workout that involves my feet and movement, please believe the toes are talking to each other.  I have tried to train my feet to be straighter, but it doesn't work. 

Normally, this is something that can or should be corrected when you're a child.  Clearly, it wasn't, so I'm dealing with it as a twenty-something year old adult.  All of the physicians I've talked to didn't see where it was a problem because it wasn't affecting my walk or posture.  But it was affecting me!  When I decided to do fitness modeling I said to myself, "how on earth are you planning on walking and standing straight on stage, in front of people, without your feet talking to each other?  The only thing I could think of was talking to myself, not out loud, to stand straight and appear as regal as I possibly can without looking clumsy.  Almost like people from other countries who sing but don't sing in the same voice as their native country (more popular and international songs world-wide, that is).  Any other day the toes lead and I follow.  But on that stage, I run the show.  I tell myself "suck in your stomach, smile, look at the judges, pose, smile, suck in your stomach, look at the judges, turn, pose, turn, smile, look at the judges, keep your feet straight, smile, keep smiling, pose (it hurts like hell but you're doing it right if it does), keep smiling, keep your feet straight, now walk off stage without tripping because all of your cool points will be lost." 

Once I'm off the stage and the lights are no longer shining on me, I'm back to following my toes.  Honestly, I don't know how that works but it does.  I swear, my life just can't be simple!

In the not-so beginning.....

The way I viewed my body is the way most people view a three tiered wedding cake adorned with diamonds and jewels, or a classic piece of artwork hung in the finest museums for all to marvel.  I figured because I was in my roaring twenties, a size four, 135 lbs soaking wet, tall, lean and mean, that my body was something to be mesmerized by and praised.  I was oh so wrong!

My friends and I liked taking beach trips and I would say to myself, "Dre Dre, if some people can walk out here with everything exposed and nothing left to the imagination why can't you?"  So I used what God gave me and my parents enabled and strutted.  Every surface my feet touched down on became my runway.  Oh I was lean and mean all right, but I had the softest, squishiest looking body that was point and laugh worthy.  I had no definition to my body.  And my belly took on a life of its own and became known to me as 'Biscuit' because of my love and obsession for bread. "Yeast will make you bigger," they said.  Ha!  The only place it made me bigger was my belly.  But that didn't matter.  I saw a svelte looking twenty-something with a wiggly booty, stick legs and pigeon toes.  And my goodness I loved a full body picture!  I couldn't stay out of the camera. 

I reflect on all of this now, looking at the progression my body has made thus far compared to how my body looked then, and I have to shake my head and laugh.  My personal trainer put it to me in a way that made me fall on the floor laughing but also made me think.  He said I held the most fat in my back and my stomach and called me a chubby skinny girl.  Ok, that's an oxymoron.  How in the world can I be classified as skinny but then be considered chubby?  But when I thought about it more, it made sense.  This is definitely no offense to anyone but I did have chubby girl tendencies.  I hid Hawaiian bread under my seat and would eat it freely when I was at a stop light.  Or I'd eat chips and salsa right before a yoga class.  I'd even eat a loaded chicken burritos after pole-dancing class and act like I just ate a light salad.  I can go on and on.

There are many contributing factors that play a part in my body transformation but it had to start with transforming my entire thought process and what my idea of a good looking body really is.  I had so many people tell me that I looked good and there was nothing wrong with me.  I was tall and skinny so I could get away with just about anything.  I started believing this and lived my life accordingly.  It took me reprogramming my mind to reprogram my image.  It started inward and progressed outwardly. 

This journey I've been on in transforming my body and lifestyle to a more healthier state has been bumpy, aggravating, hungry, hard and comical, all the more reason to share with others that may be able to relate or inspire.