Shopping is rough

On Friday I rushed straight from the hospital to the gym where I ran for about an hour while watching a documentary on weight loss (crazy pills etc). Afterwards I went shopping for a Christmas present to my dad, as I couldn't find the one I bought earlier... Rune had parked the car close to where I was at, so I decided to drop off the bags in the trunk. And what happens - other than that I decide to lift some of the stuff that's been lying in the trunk for quite some time, only to find the present that I got my dad a while back! Oh well, now someone else's gonna get the new stuff I bought. Later in the evening I went to the spa with Kristine to have facial treatments. 80 minutes passed as if it was only five minutes. Bliss.

On Saturday it was time for "Christmas Eve" at my dad's house. Earlier in the day I'm scheduled for a Zumba class at the gym. And I realize that the workout pants that I've been drooling over the entire fall, and eventually bought, is the wrong size! What a disappointment. Turns out everything I got on Friday was by fault!

At my dad's house my younger sister Ingrid introduces me to Angry birds, apparently the most played game by grown ups (on iphones, ipad, ipod touch etc). It is completely stupid, and utterly addictive. Man. I'm screwed. And not to mention, so in the past.

It is Sunday and I'm ready for eight hours in the ER. I am looking forward to the Christmas holidays - they start on Thursday. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Before or after facial treatment??

Dance, dance, dance...

I have worked as a group fitness instructor since 1997. My background is ballet, which I took for 15 years. Because I love dance and music I enjoy that it is now emerging on everyone's timetable again. For many years efficiency and interval training has been our participants' top priority, but now dance is back in focus. And in my opinion, the best combination is when you join the two :). There's no saying that a dance class can't be instructed after the principles of interval training, and it is most definitely possible to make it worth your while.







That is why we in SiT idrett have DanceAerobic, DanceStep, Afro and Zumba on our timetable for the spring of 2011! There is of course also the choice of pilates, yoga, pump, corebar and all kinds of cardio classes.

At Åsveien, where we have classes three times per week we now offer Zumba in combination with 45 minutes of Pilates on Mondays, and have kept the old class format of high intensity cardio & strengthening exercises on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Come check it out ;).

St.Lucia :)

Today it's December 13, and according to tradition I have made "lussekatter". Other than that it has been just another day at the office, and I had my last Corebar class of the year at the gym at Gløshaugen.



I wonder if Maryam did the exact same thing... She has been my baking buddy on Dec 13th for many years, but lives in Ålesund now.

I just wanted to add another picture from this weekend's zumba instructor training, of Ann-Mari who is showing off the new zumba toning equipment:



And Therese and Ann-Mari during lunch:



Tomorrow is my last day on the surgical rotation, can you believe it... How time goes by!

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Zumba & Pirate Interval in Oslo!

Yesterday I flew down from Trondheim to Oslo. First stop was World Gym, where I met up with wonderful Ann-Mari and her characteristic and cool boss BT. We went for coffee and bagel, and got to catch up on nothing and everything. Afterwards it was time to meet my aunt Lita (=little). We went shopping before dinner at my friend Tone's house. She served awesome vegetarian food and Australian red wine.

Today I've finished the first day of the zumba instructor training. Jenna Bostic is a talented instructor, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Also because I had to conserve some energy today, since I had a guest class at SiO at five. It was time for Pirate Interval! Unfortunately, the pictures didn't come out well... But I got some really good feedback, which I must admit warmed my heart!

Tone served some interesting Chinese green tea, check it out:




Ragnhild and Therese from SiT idrett:


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Doctor on call

Once every week I work from 8-21. You have no idea how luxurious that is for a hospital employeed doctor! Because the alternative is night shifts, weekends etc... But since the hospital is trying to save money interns only work day shifts. Normally I'd spend my day in the emergency room, but for the last few weeks I've been treating orthopaedic day care patients. On Wednesday I'm done with the surgical rotation. Internal medicine here I come! As for today, the day started with a laparoscopic removal of a gallbladder from a pig's liver (as part of a study conducted by the national center for advanced laparoscopic surgery). Now, 9 hours down, 4 to go...!


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My cup of tea

It's cold, it's snowing... The best thing is hot chocolate, the second best is mocca espresso (or was it the other way around? ;) ). But third place is nevertheless kusmi Christmas tea! My friend Kristine introduced me to this tea, and as an avid coffedrinker I'm convinced. Tea isn't bad at all!



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Smokin' hot shoes!

Yesterday, Inga and I went to Milde Mathilde & drillpikene. It's a concept store located outside of Trondheim in a place called Saksvik.

I bought these really cool shoes:



What do you think, cool or what? ;)

Today I've been to work, at the orthopaedic traumatologic out patient clinic, and I had my Corebar class at Gløshaugen. On Friday I teach a guest class at Centrum Athletica in Oslo. I'm looking forward to it! I hope everyone's ready for a great workout! :)

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Åre - ski & relax!

One of the most relaxing things I do with my husband is spending time together at the cabin in Åre. Last weekend we decided it was too cold to go skiing. At Storvallen, when we drove up on Saturday morning, it was minus 27 degrees Celsius!



This weekend we've had one of our very best friends visiting. Henning flew up from Oslo on Friday. It's been a great few days, and yesterday we went to Rockheim. Cool!



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Cardio training =Pirate Interval!

The theme for this event was Pirates of the Caribbean - so of course we had to bring out the imaginary sword!!

Marit Anne and I decided it was time for another training event for all the members of SiT idrett. And what energy! The participants were amazing, and we had a blast. A good reminder of why we keep doing this, considering all the time and effort! Enjoy the pictures! :)

Kickstart!

No time for relaxation... I'm in the crowd pushing them to work harder!

Jab!

Power in da house!

Twist!

Crowded house?

If you want to see even more pictures, check out Marit Anne's blog!

Todays workout: Cardio Bosu!

I knew my colleague Marit Anne was going to attend Else Maries "BosuPuls" at Dragvoll this afternoon. So at ten past four I swapped my white hospital gown for my work out clothes. I caught the bus from Gløshaugen, after dropping off the corebar I borrowed yesterday (for my certification video). I jugged down one of the new YT products (drinkable yoghurt), and met up with Marit Anne who had been at Dragvoll all day.

Busy bee...but it was fun! :) And it feels so good to be a participant, not always having to be prepared and instruct others. Read more in Marit Anne's blog!
Oh, and by the way; I got to stay in the OR all day at work today - what luxury!

Here's a picture from last weekend's workshop!
SiT instructors and Anna Duberg :).

Awesome app for mobile phone!

Who hasn't listened to a song on the radio, the TV or in a store, and thought randomly "wow, great song, wish I had it on my playlist", before moving on, never to find out who the artist is?... As an aerobic instructor I ALWAYS listen to music and think about what I can use it for. -Yeah, that one would be awesome for my core class, oh, and that one would be so cool to start my dance aerobic class with... Annoyingly, so many songs have gone by over the years, and I have missed out on so many inspiring artists!

No more!!! Because last night I found a solution to the problem. We were watching a documentary on Australian agriculture (!), and they had this incredible song as background music. I downloaded the app "Shazam" at no cost from android market to my HTC phone, pressed the shazam button, and held the phone in front of the TV. 10 seconds later I had the song title, name of artist, name of album, a link to the song on youtube, and link to amazon where I could purchase it. INCREDIBLE!

Highly recommended! :)

Ps. The song was Give a little love by Noah and the whale. The part that was used in the documentary starts at the 3 minute mark, and is definitely the best part of the song!

Core & Functional training Workshop with Anna Duberg

Marit Anne & Therese

Great day at Dragvoll idrettssenter! Not only is it awesome to work with knowledgeable people, but it is rewarding in a social sense as well. And in about an hour and a half we're going out for dinner. Thanks for the initiative, Therese!

Anna Duberg - lovely technique!

Functional training: can you imagine how you spend your body during a regular day? Let's work those muscles!



The sky is the limit!

Anna Duberg visits SiT idrett!

Afro workshop, Dance Step, and beautiful flowers on our dinner table. Not to mention my lovely friends Anja and Kristin who joined me for dinner at Bare Blåbær this evening. So far: lovely weekend!

Anna in action!

Alanna, Therese, Silje.

I even found time to shoot a few pics of Marit Anne during her Corebar class.

I

My beautiful flower creation!

Run - run - run!

When I got back from work today I had to spend a few hours looking for motivation to go to the gym. Eventually - I got my running shoes and went to Idrettsbygget Gløshaugen, my second home. For many years, while I was in medical school I used to say that my life revolved around a triangle: home, school and the gym at Gløshaugen. There wasn't time for anything else! Fortunately, I feel like I have more time now - and I have widened my horizons ;).

I have a dream that I'll be able to run the New York Marathon at one point... My husband thinks that the real reason is that I want to go to New York... He might have a point. I would love to go see my wonderful friend Rose! Anyway, as a start I ran 10 km on the threadmill today. I guess you could call it a marathon warm-up...!! LOL

My new Nikes & Ann-Mari

Whenever my mom gets back from Atlanta her suitcase is packed with things I've bought online. Yes, I'm a shopaholic! And when she's in the states for a period of time I happen to forget what I've bought... So it is quite the surprise when I get all the things I've in fact ordered myself!

This time she was only there for three weeks, so that Erik could practice his English and hang out with his Atlanta friends (and his dad of course!) - and when she came back I got the new Nike shoes I'd been waiting for! Oh, and if you ever wonder...of course it was a bargain! ;)

A couple of weeks back Ann-Mari, a former instructor in SiT idrett visited Trondheim. We've worked together on the instructor course for a few years, and as usual she took time out of her busy schedule to spend a weekend with novice fitness instructors. Her pedagogical skills are excellent!

Lately, she has excelled in Zumba as well, and has become a popular instructor who's wanted all around the country :). Of course we took advantage of this, and invited her to Armfeldtsalen at Gløshaugen. It was packed with about 150 eager participants. Everyone joined the party, and I must say, although hot and stuffy, it was a ball. So many happy people!

Ann-Mari works full-time at World Gym in Oslo. Check out their blog.

Great news! Indulge in chocolate milk!

And blame it on research! Whenever I read something that's too good to be true I tend to bring out my sceptical self... However, when I saw that chocolate milk is shown to be the best post-exercise recovery drink out there, I decided it was better to try it out before reading the documentation! If I haven't seen the effects yet, it must be because I haven't had enough ;).

Four articles published in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise show that chocolate milk offer a recovery advantage to help repair and rebuild muscles, compared to specially designed carbohydrate sports drinks.

It is good for:

• Building Muscle - make muscles better able to repair and rebuild
• Replenishing Muscle "Fuel" - replacing muscle fuel (glycogen)
• Maintaining Lean Muscle - decrease muscle breakdown
• Subsequent Exercise Performance

Chocolate milk consists of a combination of carbohydrates and proteins, and the ratio is beneficial for post exercise recovery. Also, in terms of rehydration, milk offers a fluid that includes potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Source: Medical News Today

1. Lunn WR, Colletto MR, Karfonta KE, Anderson JM, Pasiakos SM, Ferrando AA, Wolfe RR, Rodriguez NR. Chocolate milk consumption following endurance exercise affects skeletal muscle protein fractional synthetic rate and intracellular signaling. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. 2010;42:S48.
2. Karfonta KE, Lunn WR, Colletto MR, Anderson JM, Rodriguez NR. Chocolate milk enhances glycogen replenishment after endurance exercise in moderately trained males. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. 2010;42:S64.
   
3. Colletto MR, Lunn W, Karfonta K, Anderson J, Rogriguez N. Effects of chocolate milk consumption on leucine kinetics during recovery from endurance exercise. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. 2010;42:S126.
   
4. Ferguson-Stegall L, McCleave E, Doerner PG, Ding Z, Dessard B, Kammer L, Wang B, Liu Y, Ivy J. Effects of chocolate milk supplementation on recovery from cycling exercise and subsequent time trial performance. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. 2010;42:S536.

Toning shoes - a bluff?

There are an increasing amount of toning shoes out on the market. MBT may have been the first ones when they introduced the Masai Barefoot Technology in 1996. They claim that natural instability has amazing health benefits. The idea is that the shoe mimics walking on soft uneven ground. Skechers launced their Shape Ups, and Reebook have followed up with their EasyTone.

A team of scientists from the Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin designed two studies:
1) An evaluation of exercise responses to walking in toning shoes vs a running shoe
2) An evaluation of muscle activation when walking in regular athletic shoes compared to toning shoes

In the first study they monitored oxygen consumption, heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion and caloric expenditure. In the second study the researchers used electromyography (EMG) to record muscle activity in the gastrocnemius, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gluteus maximus, erector spinae and rectus abdominis muscles. In other words the calf, thighs, buttocks, back and abs.

Although the studies are small, with only 12 participants in each study, it is interesting to see that none of the toning shoes showed statistically significant increases in either exercise response or muscle activation during the treadmill trial.

So is it a bluff? I'd say that In terms of what they promise they sure are a rip-off...

Source: American council on Exercise