Catherine the Great

When it comes to dedicating time to physical conditioning I need a bit of help. Left completely on my own to execute an hour-long workout, it might go something like this: five minutes of stretching, twenty minutes of focused exercise, ten minutes of resting and thinking about the last twenty-five minutes of the workout, twenty minutes that resumes with enthusiasm but gradually tapers into lethargy, concluding with five more minutes of stretching.

This is where Catherine comes in. We’re fortunate at Boeing to have a Fitness Center with some very good group conditioning instructors, one of which happens to be her. She’s cruel and relentless but in a good way, as the group is constantly in cardio vascular pumping motion and often working a couple of different muscle groups at the same time. You may want to stop but you can’t. After all, who wants to be identified as the person in the room who is blatantly dogging their way through the hour? Not me.

At five-foot three and with about as much body fat as an Olympic swimmer, she certainly looks the part when it comes to her chosen profession. I started attending her three-a-week conditioning classes in October and haven’t looked back. Recently, I added her weekly spin (stationary bike) class to the mix to add to the exhaustion.

I haven’t known Catherine for very long, but long enough to know this: if I’m ever involved in a street fight I want her fighting with me and not against me.

Catherine: A Witness for Fitness


The other day she took time out from abdominal crunches, sumo squats, incline chest presses, and step aerobics to answer a few questions:

Bowling Joe: Are you originally from the Seattle area?

Catherine: I was born and raised in Lincolnshire, Illinois, about 20 miles north of Chicago. I moved to the San Juan Islands in 1986 (culture shock!) and then to the Seattle area in 1989.

BJ: What first got you excited about getting a job in the fitness industry?
C: I had been working out with weights for about seven years (a dreadful breakup gravitated me to the gym back in '97) and had trained for two years with a professional body builder, so was not afraid to lift heavy! I really liked the definition and sculpting I created with those heavier weights. I began noticing certain women at the gym, repeatedly working with the same pair of 5 lb. dumbbells, doing the same exercises, and sporting the same shape and size- minimal changes, if any. I knew without question that I could help them! Most women are afraid of heavy weights, fearing a bulky look. Won't happen unless you get into serious power-lifting. Thus began my schooling for my personal training cert. I was determined to share my knowledge and help others reach their goals.

BJ: How long have you been in this business?
C: I've been sculpting my own physique for over 10 years. I've been teaching others for almost 3.

BJ: Are you a personal trainer as well, and if so which do enjoy more, group or personal training?
C: I originally got certified as a personal trainer. I was a trainer for about a year at certain "chain" health clubs. I wasn't crazy about the sales pitch aspect of p.t. (I'm no good at pressuring people to buy a package of 64 sessions). One day I was asked to sub in for a group weight-lifting class when the instructor was ill, and I fell in love with it instantly. I now strictly offer group training. I believe part of my talent as a group instructor comes from my person training background. I am a stickler for good instruction, proper form, and modifying when you need to. And by GOD, I'll work you hard! Most of us are stronger than we realize.

BJ: What sports did you participate in as a youth and are you still active in any organized sports today?
C: Funny, I hated sports as a youth- probably because I was absolutely no good at any of them! I played field hockey (HATED it), basketball (DESPISED IT), volleyball (THIS I enjoyed, but I was dreadful at it), and track (SHEER DRUDGERY). I am not involved in sports today- I've accepted that it's not my area of talent. I am also the world's worst bowler. I am often invited to bowl with friends, sheerly for the comic relief I unwittingly offer.

BJ: I can relate to that. Lately, in my bowling league I’ve been serving up plenty of comic relief for my opponents. But enough about that! The trend in this country over the past thirty years has been that we're eating more poorly and not getting enough exercise. Are things getting better or worse when it comes to this?
C: It seems to me that things are getting worse- as indicated by the ever-increasing rate of obesity in this country. It's hard to stay slim when so much in our culture supports inactivity and encourages lousy nutrition. It's a real challenge for people to make time to exercise, but it's an absolute must. Equally important is a healthy diet. You can work out for hours a day, but if you are over-eating or choosing sugary, fat-laden foods (I have been guilty of this in the not-too-distant past), you will not see the results for which you are working so hard. 80% of visible fat loss depends on diet. Sorry to say it!

BJ: What fitness goals have your accomplished in the past and do you have any you'd like to meet in the future?
C: Even with my training and knowledge of proper eating, I struggled for years with those last 10 lbs I wanted to lose. I could NOT beat the sugar demon! But I did it, two years ago. I started focusing (some would call it meditating) every day on exactly how I wanted my body to look. I still do it- I visualize myself already having the trim, muscular physique I wanted. Then I take the steps necessary to make it reality. I cut out sweets, I eat fruits and veggies throughout the day, and I exercise regularly. I lost about a pound a week and reached my goal in 10 weeks, for the first time in my life. It was thrilling and it made me realize how powerful of a tool visualization is. I think it's the missing link when it comes to creating, well, ANYTHING we want in our lives!

BJ: I've heard you have at least one other job outside of your classes at Boeing Fitness. Take me through a typical week of yours.
C: Yes, I work at Sand Point Grill on weekends- it's about two miles north of Husky Stadium- great food and a killer Happy Hour! Right now, between the restaurant and group exercise, I don't have a single day off. I teach two classes per week Monday thru Thursday- different formats. (Cycling, Weights, Kickboxing) Thursday I teach Boot Camp at Gold's, one hour. Friday I teach one class at Boeing and then manage the restaurant in the evening. Saturday I'm at the restaurant, Sunday I teach Kickboxing in the afternoon and work the restaurant at night. (SOMEBODY shake me up a martini and rub my feet!) Ultimately, I am looking to get out of the restaurant work, although I really do enjoy it. I am also focusing on creating some exercise DVDs and getting a website going. You can do my workouts in your own home!
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Catherine and a "Sculpting" Class: Which Way to the Beach?

BJ: Ah, the perfect remedy for those of us who don't get enough of you during regular workout hours. When it comes to eating, any guilty pleasures?
.C: Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, SUGAR. In any form. I do my best to steer clear of it.

I also partake in a martini three nights a week- and a darn big one. I relish every sip, and have no intention of ever giving up this indulgence. Another dietary downfall for me- DIET COKE. Pure chemicals, artificial sweetener, horrible stuff. And I LOVE it. I allow myself one can a day. I've tried going off of it- it's a full-blown addiction!

BJ: What's the strangest thing you've ever seen in a gym?
C: I'm glad you didn't ask about the gym locker room! Let's see....one woman would do headstands in between sets of leg presses. After seeing this for weeks, I finally asked her why. She heard that if you do headstands in between leg exercises, the fat from your thighs will be drawn by gravity away from your legs. Words failed me. Where does the fat go?? If it's gravity at work, I assume it ends up in our heads. This would look terrible, in my opinion. I told her to let me know how that worked out for her.

BJ: Any final comments?
C: In closing, I will say this- I LOVE my job teaching Group Exercise! I get to be creative in designing class formats and routines; I am thrilled to help others improve their health, and I enjoy the challenge of making my group exercise classes effective and FUN. And I truly believe they are just that! RIGHT, JOE??......

BJ: Right, Catherine. And to say otherwise would just be asking for ten extra minutes of excruciatingly painful abdominal exercises.

A Sunday Afternoon in Bellingham

Whenever the opportunity presents itself, it’s always a pleasure to visit Bellingham, WA. That opportunity in fact did present itself on Sunday as Muffinheadedboy and his roommate Brian needed a ride back to Bellingham where they go to college.

Along with BowlingWidow, we all jumped in the Matrix and headed north at around eleven a.m. Bellingham has it all in my opinion. It’s got the warm cultural vibe that’s present in so many medium sized towns with a university located within the city limits. A cool downtown with a lot of unique independent stores and restaurants. Mount Baker looms just to the east with Bellingham Bay to the west. And it’s a nice gateway to visit Canada, eh? Yep, Bellingham has a lot going for it.
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Bandito's Burritos: The View from State Street

When I have time, there are always two places I make a point to visit. The first is a little hole-in-the wall burrito place downtown on Holly Street called Bandito’s Burritos. I don’t go there for the burritos however, although I did have one once and it was pretty good. I’m there for the salsa bar. For just $3.25 I can get 16 ounces of the finest homemade salsa in existence. And there aren’t just a few to choose from. There are TWELVE! All are worthy of consideration and they range from mild to “habanero wild”.

There are salsas that have apple and other odd fruit in them. Green salsas. Red salsas. Salsa in which the predominant ingredient is ginger. One thing for sure is that you never get exactly the same thing twice. Me? I’m kind of a traditionalist and tend to go with the tomato-based ones. But it had darned well better be hot. This time I went with the four-star (out of five) known appropriately as “Fire in the Hole”. This version also featured an abundance of garlic. Can one ever have too much garlic? I think not.
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Bandito's Salsa Bar: Pure Heaven for the Fiery Food Aficionado

The other place is Boundary Bay Brewing Company on nearby Railroad Avenue. This small brewery has deservedly done quite well since opening a few years ago and has won some prestigious awards for their product. Being a big fan of the hoppy IPAs, their version represents the gold standard of the style as far as I’m concerned.

BowlingWidow and I downed one each with our lunch. Yes, they have a pretty decent restaurant as well. She enjoyed a chicken curry meal while I warmed up with a nice bowl of homemade chili.
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Boundary Bay Brewery: a "Must Visit" in Bellingham

Sadly, our three hour whirlwind trip to Bellingham had to come to an end as all good things must, and we hit the on-ramp for the return trip on I-5 southbound, back home to Marysville: The Anti-Bellingham.

Snuggie Mania Takes Over The House

What a brilliant idea. Take an inexpensive blanket, incorporate a couple of large arm holes, and sell it anywhere and everywhere for between $12 and $20. It's a concept so simple that would-be entrepreneurs around the world are kicking themselves for not having invented it and purchased a fleet of yachts with the proceeds.

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Muffinheadedboy and BowlingJoe showing off their Snuggies

Naturally, we had to be good consumers and get a couple of Snuggies for Christmas. They really are quite comfortable to lounge around in despite the fact that they're loaded with enough static electricity to light up a small town.

I think I'll start the year 2010 by taking the Snuggie thing a bit further. I'm officially announcing that I'm starting a new religion that will be known as Snuggitarian Snuggiversalism. Cash donations are being accepted as of now.

Checkin' In After 14 Weeks

Time to pause and look back on what's been 14 weeks of focus on better health and weight management. When I set out on this mission in early September, my goal was to arrive at a weight of 180 pounds by mid-May of 2010, which represents a loss of 35 pounds. Not only getting there but staying there (and staying healthy) is the real prize.
I'm happy to say that I weighed in today at 200.5, which puts me a half-pound ahead of schedule. Any secrets to this? Not really. But here are some things I'm cognizant of:

1. Do SOMETHING every day. I get a good all-around conditioning workout in, which includes aerobic exercise and light/medium weights, on four or five days a week. The other days might just be walking a couple of miles and/or doing yoga, but it's something.

2. Avoid fried foods and things loaded with fat. But if you have anything like that, limit your portions. This past Sunday I'll admit to having eaten a Burger King Whopper. But it was a Junior Whopper and hence not as tragic.

3. Limit snacking and eating after dinner. When I have been snacking though, we have these great lime popsicles that are around 80 calories each.

4. Don't deprive yourself of everything you like to eat and drink. I haven't given up on tacos and beer, and don't intend to anytime soon.

5. Finally, remember this number: 3500. That's what a pound of body fat equates to in calories. So in order to lose one pound per week, each day you have to somehow dispose of 500 more calories than you'd normally take in when you sustain the same weight. That can be a combination of exercise and less caloric intake. I choose to try and burn approximately 300 additional calories through exercise and reduce consumption by around 200. I'm sure there are factors that make this amount more or less but I find it to be an accurate rule of thumb.

To 2010 (and beyond)!

I Smoked a Turkey (now my lungs are charred)

At first glance, cooking a Thanksgiving turkey for eleven people sounds like a daunting task. And I suppose it could be if I were fighting for space in the kitchen and oven. This holiday was one of those days that I’m really glad that we have a propane smoker.
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I set things up the night before as I had to get things going pretty early on Thursday morning. Cherry wood chips were soaking and the water bowl that produces all of that nice smoky steam was in position.
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Some of the appetizer-eating crowd


We took the thawed 15 pound bird out of the refrigerator at around 6 am and slapped it with some olive oil, followed by a generous amount of Emeril’s Turkey Rub.
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The rule of thumb is that it takes ½ hour per pound to smoke at an in-smoker temperature of between 225 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. We were looking at around 7-8 hours of elapsed time (followed by ½ hour of setting time) with the goal of having the meat thermometer register 165 degrees at the end.
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By gosh, everything worked out as planned and judging by the comments we heard from our consumers, it was a major success. Hmmm….I just might have to toss a ham in the smoker for Christmas.

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BowlingJoe and the cooked bird: which is the real turkey?

Another Look at Yoga

In March of this year, the staff association at BowlingWidow’s place of employment organized a weekly yoga session. I agreed to attend with her thinking full well that I’d participate for a couple of weeks and go back to watching Monday Night Football. Truth be told, I even blogged about the experience and poked more than a little bit of fun about it.

Well, eight months later I’m still a regular on Monday nights, having learned far more about yoga than I ever thought I would. It’s hard to articulate but suffice it to say that I feel really good both physically and mentally after the sessions, and it’s now an essential ingredient in a portfolio of activities that are contributing to better overall health.

Our outstanding instructor, Paul MacNaughton, recently answered some questions I had about yoga and his approach to it. So here it is, my first ever interview on the BowlingJoe blog. Now if only Paul could do something to cure my sagging bowling average.....

BowlingJoe: In your words, what is yoga?

Paul MacNaughton: Yoga is a re-discovery of things we already know, in the present moment.

The yoga principles, including not harming, not stealing, not being greedy, and so on, are nothing new in themselves. What is new is how we can follow them in this moment. That is never the same twice.

The asanas (postures) remind us of what the physical body is capable, perhaps shapes and movements which we have not explored since we were children, at least not intentionally. In class we re-awaken to our own physical nature. The result is a greater range of awareness and health for both mind and body.

There are also breath disciplines/expansions, and internal focus techniques such as meditation. These are maps and practice guides for exploring the mysteries of living, such as the question "Who am I?", and "What is the source of suffering in the world?", among countless others. Except for a few rather fundamentalist sects of yoga, which try to provide the "answers" to these questions for us, the responses to these questions are newly re-discovered by the practitioner. In other words, rather than a dogma, yoga is experience in the present moment, first and foremost.

Just a few words concerning what I feel yoga is not. Of course, this could be controversial. Yoga is not a religion or a belief system. Some of the terminology and the sanskrit come from the Vedas, but clear lines between categories of things such as religion vs. science vs. philosophy vs. art did not seem to exist uniformly at all times in human history. So, we can say modern yoga is not a religion or belief system. It is a practice.
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Paul MacNaughton

BJ: How long have you been practicing yoga and what was your original inspiration for doing so?

PM: A friend of mine, Jeff Scott, took a TM course when we were in college, and said, "You have got to try this!" The Beatles had been to India recently to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and I figured that if it was good enough for them and Jeff, I should give it a try. With a few lapses, I have been practicing meditation in some form since that time. There were a few very simple postures and breath exercises as part of the TM training, but it was mainly about meditation. For the last 9 years I have had a much-augmented postures and breath exercise routine, and still continue the meditation practice on a regular basis, though I now mostly practice using techniques other than TM.

BJ: There are many different types of yoga styles being taught and practiced today. Which one (or ones) resonate the most with you and why?

PM: The style that I practice most of the time currently is the karuna yoga which I teach. It is a blend of Iyengar-like hatha yoga postures, kundalini yoga, which emphasizes reliance on the power of the core and the breath rather than the muscles, and some aspects of John Friend's anusara yoga, especially the alignment-opening-stabilizing work with loops and spirals, and the 5 elements.

While all styles of yoga have their advantages, and perhaps pitfalls, I tend to recommend the gentle styles. I believe that compassion for our limitations, and the limitations of others, is an essential part of the yogic process. I have heard very famous teachers speak to the contrary. Ultimately, it is matter of exploration and personal choice.

BJ: How has practicing yoga made a difference in the quality of your life?

PM: It is hard to say exactly what is causal in life, there are so many influencing factors. But, I was 50 pounds heavier 10 years ago. I also don't eat carbs or sugar very much, and I try to walk 4 or 5 miles per week. I cannot imagine life without daily yoga. I believe yoga has increased my strength and general health, including mental/emotional stability and equanimity.

Also, yoga has led me to discoveries which help me to see life more clearly. Perhaps that has been its greatest gift for me.

BJ: Prior to becoming involved in practicing yoga I had a rather oversimplified view of what yoga is. What are some common misconceptions about yoga in American society and popular culture?

PM: When we use the term yoga today, most of us are speaking about the postures (asanas). I fall into that trap myself quite often. When I catch myself and say "asanas" instead, most people look at me as if either I have misspoken, or am trying to get technical with them. So I don't usually fight it, unless I am trying to intentionally make a point.

Many still adamantly believe that all yoga is a religion, and some call it a tool of the devil. Of course, for these people, there is no satisfactory response--their minds are made up. Any "open-minded discussion" is really an attempt to paint an inaccurate and unbecoming portrait, and then protest the ugliness. It is about dominance/submission.

There are certain forms of yoga where worship and devotion are involved. That is true. But, in this country, is it not a right to practice one's religion within the confines of the law? Does it say somewhere that others can determine our choice in the matter? A person of any faith or belief system can practice yoga without interference. Almost all yogas do not tell us which God to worship, or any at all, including the forms I practice.

Yoga is about disentangling our body, heart, and mind, from the automatic patterns of behavior which rule us in our daily lives, and opening to our truest, deepest nature, which is always already free, compassionate, awake, and kind.
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Paul MacNaughton

BJ: For those who are interested in initially learning about or starting to practice yoga, where would you suggest they start?

PM: Locally, Kindred Spirit Learning Center, a branch of Sound Holistic Health, above the Sno-Isle Food Co-op in downtown Everett, has 3 yoga teachers on staff. Go to http://www.soundholistichealth.com/ for the schedule. My website, http://creativesourcealliance.com/ also has information. http://yogacirclestudio.com/ is another good source.

Generally-speaking, my recommendation is anusara yoga. But, there are many excellent teachers on almost all of the paths. Trust your own experience, listen to your body, and follow your heart!