Last week I showed you an upper body workout to help you tone and tighten your upper body. The workout put a different spin on your usual upper body workout by using resistance bands instead of free weights.

I got a question from one of my readers:

How do I know which resistance band I should buy and use for my upper body workouts? There are many different colors – how do I tell the difference? Read the full story

Its hard for most women to find who they are. Its a journey you embark on every day – figuring out just where you fit in – what makes you happy – and to most importantly, make yourself happy.

This week’s inspiring woman, Emily Lind, has found the “Essence of Em”. She has found how to love herself for who she is – through her love for fitness and healthy eating and life itself.

I had the pleasure of meeting Emily in person this past weekend at the Arnold 2010 Expo – and let me tell you – she’s awesome on paper but even MORE inspiring in person. Let Emily tell you how she found ‘herself’ in hopes of helping you find you…

Womens Ab Workout: Tell us more about yourself – What is the Essence of Em? How long have you been training and what are your goals and aspirations in the fitness industry?

Imirage Photography

Emily Lind: I created the essence of em because I realized that achieving goals was my passion and I wanted other people to experience the same joy by achieving their goals. It is so important to be happy. I believe having someone to hold you accountable is essential to your success and achieving this happiness.   My goal is to teach people, check in and be involved in their life, which is many times more fulfilling that achieving my own goals. Read the full story

Does this sound familiar? As a high school athlete you go to every single fast food joint possible after practice – starved and no real idea about what you really should be eating in order to be better. You’re young and you’re hungry – thats all that matters.

Then you hit college. You don’t know any other way of eating so you continue to eating whatever you can, usually the bad stuff because that tastes so much better. However, you’re not nearly as active as you were before, plus your hormones start changing and your metabolism starts to slow a bit. So, instead of staying muscular and lean like before you start gaining the ‘freshman 15′.

How do you end the cycle? Ask Lizzy Ostro. Lizzy not only managed to get herself out of the freshman 15, but came out on top competing in regional bikini shows, and will be at the NPC Jr. Nationals later this year.

How’d she get there? I’ll let Lizzy tell you…

Womens Ab Workout: Tell us more about yourself. Who are you? How long have you been training and what are your goals and aspirations in the fitness industry?

Lizzy Ostro: Thanks so much for interviewing me!! My name is Lizzy Ostro aka “Fit Lizzio”. I’m 21 years old and have been training for 2 ½ years. After being an athlete throughout much of my life, I began college as a lazy freshman. I began working with a personal trainer in 2007, and my love for fitness, body building, and training became my lifestyle. I have competed in 2 regional bikini shows, and plan to hit the national scene this year in Chicago in June.

WAW: To get into great shape, for a bikini show, you must be pretty particular about your training.  How would you describe your training? Are you into body part training or full body training? Why? How much of your training is weight training and how much is cardio?

LO: Everyone’s workout style is different. I have found that if you don’t train the way you LIKE to train, you are less likely to stick to it and your results will not be as good. I do a 5 day split with 2 leg days per week. One leg day focuses on hamstrings and glutes, and the other leg day focuses on quads and plyometrics. My problem areas are my shoulders and legs as far as building muscle goes, so I take special consideration when training those areas.

After being a “cardio queen” for some time, I finally realized that the weight training is really what shapes your body. Cardio is great to get a little extra fat burning and to increase cardiovascular fitness, but your physique is built with weight training. I always put that as first priority. I still do cardio most days of the week, but I mix it up between running, boxing, hiking, and the stairmill.

WAW: One of the biggest parts of fitness, whether training for a show, as you have done, or just trying to lose weight and get a flat stomach is DIET. What does your diet look like when getting ready for a show? What is your favorite flat stomach recipe?

LO: SO many people are confused about this topic. The truth is, you CAN’T out train a bad diet (believe me, I’ve tried J). When I’m getting ready for a show, I use a much healthier approach than many people in this industry. I believe in eating for health and wellness first, and little tweaks can be made to get you your body into a “show ready” mode. Extreme dieting, although very common in the fitness industry, only leads to a big blow up after a show(also something I’ve learned first hand.) To be able to get my physique to where I want it to be, I simply start “dieting” further out from the show, in order to have plenty of time to lean out. I eat a very clean diet because it allows me to eat more food and still lean out. What’s better than that?!

A sample day of eating for me would look something like this:

Meal 1: ¼ cup wheat bran, ¼ cup rolled oats, 1 scoop protein powder, ½ TBSP Raw Almond Butter, 2 Egg Whites mixed in

Meal 2 : Protein shake(immediately after workout), 4 oz. ground turkey, ¼ avocado, ½ cup brown rice, lots of veggies.

Meal 3: Salad made with: 1 bed of spinach/romain lettuce, 1 can no salt added tuna or 4 oz. chicken, ¼ c. no salt added black beans, tomato slices, other fresh veggies, and pico de gallo as my dressing.

Meal 4: Coconut Protein Pancake(see recipe below!)

Meal 5: Protein milkshake: 1 scoop protein, ¼ cup pasteurized egg whites, ½ TBSP natural peanut butter, and ice. Blended.

Meal 6: 1 egg, 5 whites, 1 cup spinach, lots of fresh and/or cooked veggies

As you can see, my diet is very clean, but it is plenty of food. If you choose proper foods, you are able to eat more. I rarely go to bed hungry, and I feel incredible eating this way. Many people also are against eating fruit when trying to lean out. I keep fruit in my diet, but just a piece or two every day or every other day.

WAW: In your Twitter bio, you describe yourself as a ‘hard rock loving gym rat.” What 5 songs can we find you singing along to at the gym today?

LO: Haha, the dark side comes out! Just kidding. When I picked up my guitar in 7^th grade, I got into Metallica, Pantera, and other bands in that genre. I guess that is where my love for hard rock/metal arose. These days, you can find me listening to Deftones, Incubus, Glassjaw, Killswitch Engage, and Sevendust in my headphones during a workout. I have an absolute love for music and am learning to become an audio engineer. Music takes me to a whole new level, and when combined with fitness, it is absolute bliss for me.

WAW: On your blog, you take the time to describe yourself. When doing so you say that you  used to think of yourself as ‘skinny fat’ – how have you overcome that mental barrier to allow yourself on stage to compete? What advice can you offer other women who battle with similar self image issues?

LO: In high school, if I hadn’t hit up three different fast food joints that day, something must have been wrong. I literally ate fast food for every meal, but because I was so active and young, it didn’t catch up with me. My blood flowed with Dr. Pepper, and fruits and vegetables were non-existent in my life. When I started college, the terrible eating continued, but the exercise stopped. Although I only gained a few pounds, I lost muscle and became the dreaded “skinny-fat”.

After I began working out again, I started noticing my body toning up and I absolutely loved the results. One of my biggest motivators in working out is seeing changes in my body. There is no better reward for all of the hard work. It not only changed my appearance, but it changed ME. I became more confident, and learned that through discipline, I could change many aspects of my life. This carried into my student and professional life, and I feel that the confidence I have now would not have been achieved without the dedication to this sport.

For someone battling self image issues, I can completely relate. Even now, sometimes I feel self conscious about my body. The one thing that has helped me tremendously is that there is ALWAYS room for improvement. If you feel like your workouts haven’t been great, or maybe you fell off the wagon and haven’t been eating very well, there is always tomorrow to give you the opportunity to try again. As long as you don’t give up, you will never fail. Be PROUD of who you are, as there is only ONE of you and people will love and respect you for being true to yourself.

WAW: What’s next for you?

LO: As mentioned earlier, this year I plan on taking the stage at the NPC Jr. Nationals in Chicago, IL in June. I qualified for this show back in July 2009, and am extremely excited to be able to step on the national scene and see what I can do. The possibilities are endless. Competing can be very subjective, as you never know who the judges will be on the day of the show. Someone I look up to once told me this. She said that if after the show, I feel like I brought my best package, and after looking at pictures, I liked the way I looked, then I won the show. No two judges will ever be looking for the exact same thing, and you have to be proud of what you have accomplished and accept your placing as simply an opinion.

WAW: Where can we find more information out about you?

LO: I have recently started taking on clients for affordable nutritional coaching both for shows, and just everyday life. My website, although not up yet, is coming along well. You can check out my blog at: http://fitlizzio.wordpress.com to see my daily workouts, food intake and thoughts on competing, fitness and life.  You can also e-mail me at fitlizzio@gmail.com

Need MORE inspiration? Check out These Women

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They teach you to “Just Say No” when you are in school, so why have you forgotten to say NO to boring cardio when you’re trying to lose weight?

If you REALLY want flat abs and you REALLY want the body of your dreams then you need to get away from spending hours upon hours just running on the treadmill.

The most effective type of cardio for weight loss and endurance is Interval Training. With interval training you are not only going to see results faster, but you can cut your time at the gym in half!

What is interval training? Will it really work? Listen and find out….

The best way to tell if your weight loss or muscle building workouts are working – you feel them.

What does that mean?

This is the concept of DOMS – Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness – one of my personal favorite reasons for working out.

If you can walk the day after a leg workout – you didn’t push yourself hard enough.

I’m even having a hard time typing this, my arms are SO sore from yesterday’s workout!

Today I talk about DOMS – some people love them, others hate them – why they ARE good and how to make it a little less painful walking up those stairs or putting on your jacket.

How do you feel about DOMS?

This week, we are going back to the Weight Loss Basics. It’s that time of year when everyone has headed into the gym, whether for New Year’s Resolutions or it’s time to get down to business.  No matter how much expertise you have in the gym, or how little, it’s always important to start with the basics, and have a solid foundation to work from.

Houses, cars, computers, all begin with solid foundations and we, as humans, are no different.  In order to be most successful in reaching our weight loss goals, we need to start with a solid foundation and work onwards from there.  So where do we begin – by building a strong core.

What is the core?  Your core is the area in the middle of your body (think of the core of an apple), [singlepic=6,100,100,,left] consisting of your abdominals, back, pelvis, and hips.  These four areas work together to create the foundation for your upper and lower body strength. Without a strong core the rest of your muscles will not reach their full strength potential.

Why do I need a strong core? Everyone needs a strong foundation, without that you will crumble. Your core muscles not only help with balance and posture, but they help with stabilization of your body, allowing other muscle groups to work.  A strong core will help you jump higher and run faster, lift heavier objects, as well as preventing injuries to your back or other muscle groups.

Please do not disregard the importance of your core muscles, not just for working out at the gym, but as a part of your daily life. This past year, a few weeks after my first triathlon, (just a few weeks after the “After” picture on my Twitter page) when I was in the best shape of my life, I herniated two discs in my back.  It was easily the most uncomfortable and painful thing that I have ever experienced.  I couldn’t go to the gym for at least a month, it hurt to sit, it hurt to stand, and it was not my idea of a good time.

When I was finally able to go back to the gym, I was only able to do very BASIC workouts – everything focusing on my core muscles, making sure that they were strong enough to protect my back from further injury.  I felt silly doing all these simple moves, but during that time, I realized just how important a strong core is to your daily function.  Having a strong core, a solid foundation, is critical to living a healthy life, as you use these muscles during SO many daily activies.

Now, whenever I lift something heavy or pick up a pen off the floor, reach for something, or whenever I’m about to do a set of weights at the gym, I make sure that I brace my core muscles and then continue with what I was doing. Why, because I definitely don’t want to hurt myself again and I don’t want you to hurt yourself!

So, please, take a look at your workout – are you focusing at all on making your core muscles stronger? If not, it’s time to start.  This week we’re focusing on the basics…the basics of successful weight loss, to make sure that everyone reaches their goals. You can’t reach your goals if you are injured!  Tomorrow I’m going to post my favorite core exercises for you to include in your workout; so you too can start building a strong foundation and avoid injury on your road to a flat sexy stomach and weight loss success!