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by Jan Scalisi
Copyright © 2000 Greenville Journal
After years of training women, Ramona Graham claims she knows their complaints
by heart. "They're so typical,'"says the fitness instructor. "And you hear the
same ones over and over."
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She refers to the discontent her female clients express about particular parts
of their anatomy. "Hips and thighs, and I'd say also abdominals, are major complaint
areas" she reports. While men tend to store excess weight in their midsection,
according to Graham, "women tend to carry it between the waist and knees, sad
to say." |
With warm weather approaching, the thought of struggling into a bikini, or even
a one–piece, fills some with dread. The temptation is to crash diet to quickly
shed those excess pounds.
Instead of making drastic changes, keep a record of what you eat for a few days,
paying particular attention to both the total calories and the types of food consumed.
A single pound of body weight is the equivalent of 3,500 calories.
Avoid skipping meals; eat small meals throughout the day; choose healthy snacks
consisting of fruit, low–fat dairy products and cereals; consume a diet rich in
protein and calcium; and drink eight glasses of water per day. The goal, as she
sees it, is to "adopt eating habits you can sustain beyond the swim suit season."
Graham, who thinks of food "as fuel for life," describes sugar as "enemy number
one." "If there is one thing you should cut out of your diet to slim them up,
it's sugar." She explains that consumption of the Western world's favorite sweetener,
along with other simple carbohydrates, such as white bread, causes insulin levels
to peak and crash.
"The more sugar you take in, the more your body craves it," she says. Eliminating
sugar from the diet stabilizes insulin levels, reducing the craving to eat.
Graham is adamant that healthy eating habits must be complemented by regular
exercise. In fact, Graham refers to fitness as a "triangle," comprised of sound
nutrition, cardiovascular conditioning and weight resistance training.
"Many women avoid weight training, because they fear bulky muscles," she acknowledges.
Calling muscle "a fat–burning furnace" she encourages her female clients to pump
it up. "You have to think of dumbbells as a sculptor's knife." While a proper
diet may help an individual shed fat, weight training provides the muscle tone.
Graham allows that a woman's dissatisfaction with her appearance can be as much
mental as physical. "When women look into a mirror, they often see ten more pounds
than are there," she contends.
Clients sometimes bring her pictures of fashion models to illustrate their personal
goals. And she ends up, instead, having a conversation with them about the role
of genetics and self–regard. "That's the challenge for me as a trainer—to get
people to stop obsessing over body image" she says.
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