befabulo.us/t-tapper

Skin Brushing: Just Do It

In my first go-round with T-Tapp, I didn't do the CRT skin brushing.  I bought the CRT package as a gift for my mom, and I watched the how-to video, but just never bothered to do it.  Why?  Just lazy, I guess.  But when I came back to T-Tapping after having had a baby, I had extra motivation to skin brush... extra cellulite left over from the 35 pounds I'd gained, loose skin on my belly, stretch marks galore.  If such a simple, quick, inexpensive technique could make a difference, if there was even a chance it could make a difference, it'd be worth a try, right?

Right.  So, so right.  Consistent skin brushing has made a world of difference.  It's delivered on all the promises, and I think it's a big reason why I won in the Less to Lose category of the 2007 60-Day Challenge.  That's what Teresa told me, that she'd been impressed at how much tighter and firmer my skin looked in the final set of photos.  (The link above shows one set of before and after photos, and also has my essay explaining how little I'd actually worked out during that period.) 

Like everything else, consistency is the key to success with skin brushing.  You just have to do it.  Aim to do it every day.  If you're prepping for a big event -- a beach trip, or perhaps a wedding or gala when you'll need to wear a strapless dress -- you can brush twice a day.  It's not hard, it doesn't take long, and it actually (I think) feels good.

But it's hard, I know, to start any kind of healthy habit and keep it going.  We've all got reasons to resist change, so let me tell you some of the ways I've fought my way around my reluctance to get into the brushing habit.

Excuse: I don't have time.
The whole CRT brushing routine takes about three minutes.  Is having a smooth rear view worth three minutes a day?  I think so!  Find a time when it's convenient to fit it into your schedule, and remember, you don't HAVE to do it right before a shower.  Brushing doesn't make you dirty, in my opinion.  I feel like it leaves my skin clean.  It's good to brush after doing PBS or doing a workout, but again, you don't HAVE to... brushing at any time of day is better than not brushing at all.

Excuse: I'm too tired.
I used to brush my skin right before getting into bed, but I realized that I was skipping it more often than not because I was tired and too eager to just get into bed.  Maybe brushing before bed would be a good time for you, but for me, it was just one step too many in my bedtime routine.  I find that I'm much more consistent if I make brushing part of my "getting ready in the morning" routine.  I brush before getting dressed, and because NOT getting dressed isn't really an option on workdays, I get it done.

Excuse: It's too cold.
Teresa might not have this problem in balmy Florida, but in my less-tropical clime, and in my drafty old house, I DO.  With the thermostat set at 62 degrees, even three minutes of standing around naked is two and a half minutes too many.  I've just given myself goosebumps just THINKING about it.  Brrr.  I've solved the problem with my yet-to-be-patented Bathrobe Trick.  You can do it too, I know you can, because if you live somewhere with actual winter I know you already have the crucial ingredient: a thick, warm bathrobe.  Here's what to do: start out wearing nothing but your bathrobe and slippers.  Make sure the bathrobe belt is tied firmly around your waist.  Now pull one arm out of the sleeve and brush it, baring the breast when necessary.  Re-sheathe your arm and do the other side.  For the rest of the body, I find I can brush my legs without untying the robe, so I only have to totally open the robe to brush my belly and butt.  To keep my feet warm, I generally keep my slippers on, and only pull my feet out of the slippers when I need to brush them, and I always make sure to do my brushing standing on a bathmat or rug because my hardwood and tile floors are COLD.

Excuse: It's boring.
I've got a rather low boredom threshold, and so I find even three minutes without entertainment or distraction to be a chore.   At least while I'm doing my workout I have Teresa to watch, myself to check out in the mirror, and I really need to focus on what my body's doing.  Brushing doesn't require that kind of focus, in my opinion, so feel free to avail yourself of entertainment while you're brushing.  Watch TV while you brush.  Call a friend and talk to her on speakerphone.  Turn on the radio and sing.  Personally, I like to read magazines while I brush.  I just open a magazine on the bathroom counter so I can distract myself with the sweet, sweet written word.  I'd read books while I brush, but they're harder to keep open without using one's hands, so instead I use my three minutes every morning to keep up with the new spring fashions.  (Which are dreadful.  Big bows on dresses?  Are you KIDDING me?  But that's a topic for another day.)

Excuse: It can't possibly work for me.
You're right.  It can't possibly work if you don't try it.  If you've got a CRT brush that's collecting dust, break it out and use it.  If you don't have one yet, go to the T-Tapp webstore and treat yourself to either the full CRT set or the bargain option, the skin brush with written instructions.  The brush and instructions set is only $15, and in my opinion, it's worth so much more than that.  We've got three months until shorts season (that is, for those of us not lucky enough to live in Florida or Southern California) and four months until the swimming pools open.  That's enough time to make a real difference.  That's enough time to make this your most confident summer ever.

Beating boredom

I am shamelessly stealing blog entry ideas from other peoples' blogs.  Do I feel bad about it?  No!  (See also: "shameless.")  Over on Ask Moxie today, Moxie asked for her readers to submit their T-Tapp stories, and one commenter mentioned that she struggles with boredom.  "Doing any one workout over an extended period of time would be I guess," writes Thy, but there's probably more to it than that.  T-Tapp doesn't use any of the distracting gimmicks that you'll find on other workout videos -- there's no music, no flashy backdrops or fancy camerawork, no hunky guys sweating shirtless in the background.  It's a mind-body workout; you need to focus on what is happening in your body, so the fewer the distractions the better.  But I'll admit, I've struggled with boredom myself.  It's not so bad when I'm actually DOING the workout, but it's sometimes hard to work up the motivation to press "play" on a DVD I could quote verbatim.  So what to do?

The obvious solution is to order more T-Tapp workouts, so you can vary your routine.  Most of the workouts aren't available in the webstore; you need to call the office to order, so they can verify that you already own the instructionals.  (The number is 1-800-342-0717... and don't forget to mention befabulo.us!)  I own a stack of workouts -- as soon as I can find the time, I intend to start posting reviews of the various workouts I own, as well as some of the new ones that are just being released -- and it does help a lot to be able to stare at my collection and wonder whether I feel like doing Tempo Torso or the Ladybug workout or Basic Workout Plus followed by Hit the Floor.  (I realize that this is the same type of manipulative trick I pull on my 5 year old son.  Just as "do you want to wear your sneakers or your boots?" works to quell the "I don't wanna go out!"s, "do you want to do Ladybug or Tempo?" works on the "I don't wanna work out!"s.)  There will be longer reviews to follow, but for now, let me give you some quickie review-suggestions on workouts you might want to add to your collection...

T-Tapp to Tempo: This is the Total Workout, but done at a smooth pace and with less instruction, which brings the total time down to about 40 minutes instead of 55.  The one I own was made in 2001, but there's a new version that's just been released that is high on my MUST OBTAIN list.

Hit the Floor: A 30 minute floor workout that targets the belly, butt, hips and thighs.  HIGHLY effective.  One of the things I love about this workout is that it intersperses hard moves and soothing stretches.  I like to do this one after Basic Workout Plus, but it can be done on its own if you do PBS first.

Ladybug Level 1:  This workout is billed as being for "Menopause Management,"  but it's a fabulous workout for people of all ages.  The workout is in two parts, first a standing workout that's similar to the Total Workout, and the second is a floor workout.  The DVD is set up so you can do either just the standing, just the floor, or both.  I love this one.  Most of the exercises are similar to those on Total Workout or Hit the Floor, but they've all been tweaked so you'll feel new and different sensations as you go through them.  Certain moves are totally new.  I did a 4 day bootcamp once with the combo Ladybug workout, which was hard, I'm not going to lie to you, but at the end I had brand-new muscle cuts on my hips.  That's not a bad thing for bikini season! Oh, and the first section of the standing workout, through Advanced Hoe Downs, can be used on its own as an alternative to Basic Workout Plus, or you could stop there and skip right to the floor segment.

(N.B.: You need to be familiar with the Total Workout before trying any other T-Tapp workouts, but then again, you probably wouldn't be bored if you weren't very familiar with it.  Also, make sure that at least one of your workouts each week is one of the standards, either Total Workout or T-Tapp to Tempo if you do long workouts, BWO+ if you do the shorter versions.)

So you could buy more workouts, but what if you're tight on cash and can't afford a new workout right now?  You could try T-Tapping with a friend.   You could try moving your exercise space if you have a portable DVD player or laptop; my friend Kate likes to T-Tapp outside by her pool.  You could try breaking the workout up into shorter chunks (my favorite place to stop, if I want to do a longer-than-BWO workout but not the full thing, is right after Thread the Needle and Runner's Stretch.)  You could try using BWO+ as a warm-up for other exercise, like walking, rebounding or whatever you like.

It's not advised that you try to beat the boredom by having a TV or radio on... but I'll admit that if I do any "extras" in the evening, a bit of floorwork or what have you, I generally do it with the TV on.  And my favorite way to stay entertained while skin-brushing is to prop a magazine open on the bathroom counter and read while I brush.

So what works for you to conquer boredom and keep your motivation up? 

Summer's First Clinic

(This is another oldie but goodie, originally written on 31 October 2006.)

My father always needs me to tell him very specifically what I want for my birthday or for Christmas, which is fine by me, and in previous years has resulted in booty such as my teensey digital camera and my beloved Dyson vacuum cleaner. This fall, when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I asked him to get me T-Tapp-related presents. I asked for these funky-looking Skechers sneakers, because I am vain enough to like the idea of silver metallic leather on my workout shoes, and also because the T-Tapp divas (Teresa, the trainers, the multi-year veterans) all swear that Skechers are the ultimate T-Tapp shoe. Now that I've tried them, I too am a convert. They've made a huge difference in my stance. If you're tapping, get some Skechers Sports, you won't regret it.

I also asked my dad to sign me up for a clinic, so I could spend an afternoon being taught by a certified T-Tapp Trainer. I'd never gone to a clinic. I tried to; in late 2001, I signed up for a clinic with Teresa Tapp herself, who had come to DC to host a weekend event. I was seven weeks pregnant (pregnancy #1), and I started bleeding two days before the clinic. Instead of going to the clinic I'd been so excited about, I spent the weekend, and the next several weeks, on bedrest in a futile attempt to save that baby. But! This time I'm not pregnant! So I got to go to the clinic!

On Saturday afternoon I drove up to Laurel for the clinic. It only takes about 30 minutes to get there, but I gave myself nearly an hour, which turned out to be wise. I drove past the building twice before finally finding it. I was still a little bit early, ten minutes or so, but I was surprised that I was the first student to arrive.

As it turned out, it wasn't that I was so early -- I was the ONLY student who showed up.  It was just me and the trainer, Kiona Leah, and for the next three and a half hours her eagle eye was on me. "I guess I don't need to ask you to keep a close eye on me on certain moves," I said. And no, I didn't. She gave me form corrections on every single move. She positioned me so that the mirrored wall was behind me, so she could check my form from the back as well as the front.

The biggest advantage to having Kiona all to myself was that I could call out questions to her as we worked. I didn't have to worry about interrupting the class, or disturbing someone else's concentration. We were able to spend extra time working on the moves I have trouble with; I'm now closer than ever to feeling like I "get" the T-Tapp Twist. (It's still hard, and weird. I think I need to go to another clinic.)

Kiona peppered the session with explanations of the physiology behind each move -- I'd known where the lats are, roughly, but I'd never realized just how much of the back they cover -- and with insider information about how Teresa has continued to tweak the form over the years. She was able to give me alternate explanations of some of the form reminders that Teresa gives on the videos; for instance, on the seated floor exercises like In-Outs, Teresa often says "tighten tummy", and Kiona told me that I could think "lift ribs" instead. What a difference!

And speaking of "what a difference"....

I'm a regular user of the T-Tapp forums, and I'd read with no small amount of jealousy the reports from people who'd gotten to go to the October T-Tapp retreat in Florida. After the retreat, many of the attendees posted the inch losses they'd had from just that one weekend of (many intense) workouts -- many people, even ones who'd been slim to begin with, lost ten or more inches! So I found myself wondering if I would see a measurable inch loss just from a one-day clinic. I designed my experiment: I'd measure myself first thing on Saturday morning, and then again on Monday morning, giving myself a day for muscular swelling to go down. I'd expected to see a little bit of progress, but I was shocked by the results. I lost:
0.25" in my belly,
0.5" in my hips,
0.75" and 1" in my upper thighs (whoa!),
0.25" and 0.5" in my lower thighs, and
0.5" in each calf, for a total of 4.25".

I couldn't believe it.  If I lose 4.25" in the course of a 4-day bootcamp, I consider that to be impressive progress.  For reference, over the course of the 60 day challenge this summer, I lost a total of 10.25", and that was including measurements of the bust and arms, too. 4.25" in 3.5 hours!  I LOVE T-TAPP! 

Would you like to guess if I'll be seeking out more training from Kiona?  Oh, yeah.

Do you remember that chart I made over the summer, the one that listed the number of inches I'd need to lose to get back to the size I was before I first got pregnant?  Well, as of yesterday, the number of inches I'd need to lose to regain pre-baby hotness is... 3/8".  My waist is still a bit less than half an inch larger than it was at the end of my first T-Tapp journey, but every other measurement is now SMALLER.  I'm pretty certain that I'm now a size 2 again.  Because it's Halloween, and Halloween should be scary, this morning I tried on the two pairs of leather pants I bought in September 2001, when I was a skinny T-Tapped nulipara.  Both are size 2.  The black ones, which are made of a thinner, more supple leather, zipped up and snapped without any breath-sucking, and there was only the merest hint of a muffin top above the high waist.  I wasn't brave enough to try sitting in them, but I got into them.  The purple ones, which are a jeans-cut and are made of thick heavy leather, came up over my hips but didn't come close to zipping up. The gap between the button and buttonhole was WAY more than 3/8", which leads me to believe that perhaps bits of me that I don't measure are still larger than they were five years and two pregnancies ago.  But that's okay.  I'm still proud of myself, and I'm still planning to hide a few of the dark chocolate mini-Mounds bars before they go into the trick-or-treat bowl.

So if you want my assvice, my shrinking-assvice, it's this: if you aren't T-Tapping, start.  If you are T-Tapping, go to a clinic.