Remember my review of the Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno? If you don’t, let me tell ya that she’s a woman who in her 40’s dropped 60 pounds by eating clean and exercising, and then went on to become a fitness model at the age of 45 – goes to show that it’s never too late to get in tip-top shape!
Well besides her Eat Clean Diet (and cookbook), she also has, you guessed it, the Eat Clean Workout.
This book was sent to me by the publisher who asked if I’d be interested in reviewing it because I write about how I’m eating clean, but in case you don’t already know this I give you my own opinion of whatever the topic is that I write about here at Fearless Fat Loss, so if there’s something I don’t like then I do pass that along, too.
The Eat-Clean Diet Workout
The Eat-Clean Diet Workout book is chock full of exercises that you can do with free weights and a flat bench. I don’t have a bench but I do have free weights, and I improvised with the bench exercises (more on that below).
What’s really neat about the book is that besides all of the content inside of it, you also get a 30-minute workout DVD along with it, the EZ Dumbell Workout. I hopped on the opportunity to use that right away. 😉
The workout consists of 9 exercises, which took me about 45 minutes to complete because I kept rewinding the DVD. For the exercises that required a bench (like the single arm dumbell rows) I used a kitchen chair with padding for my leg. It’s not ideal and you don’t really get the form with some of the exercises you’re supposed to with the bench, but I wanted to be creative and do what I could to do the full workout. The best thing though, especially to avoid injury, is to do them with the recommended equipment.
My Favorite (& Toughest!) Exercise
The biggest thing that I got out of the DVD workout was a simple yet powerful ab exercise (toes to ceiling exercise) that you do on the floor – I laid on the floor on my workout mat, lower back pressed against the floor, extended both legs straight up in the air to create a 90 degree angle with my body, and proceeded to lift my toes toward the ceiling using only my abs. Oh my gosh, was that ever hard, and I didn’t raise my backside up very far off the mat.
Nope, I don’t have a rock hard core, that’s why I’m working out! 🙂 So if you are already in fabulous shape this book might be too easy for you (and you probably already know all of these exercises), but if you’re like me, just a regular person who is shaping up and getting fit, then I think you could benefit from this book. You can do the exercises at home if you have the equipment or if you already belong to a gym then you’re all set since you can use their equipment.
This Exercise May Not Be For You
I don’t like are lunges, and there are 2 lunge exercises on the DVD. I think they’re dangerous for the knees because if you don’t do them correctly you could really hurt yourself (and I need my knees for skiing 😉 ), but maybe that’s just because of my experience with them. I’d recommend that you learn how to do lunges correctly, one-on-one with a personal trainer, and then you can decide whether or not they’re a good exercise for you.
I’ve focused on the DVD workout in this post however there’s a lot more to the book than just the DVD. In the book Tosca includes machine workouts, bench presses, how to keep track of your workouts so that you keep increasing reps and intensity over time, and more. She does throw in a bit about how eating clean is 80% of the component of gaining the shape that you want, however most of that is covered in her Eat Clean Diet book.
The Eat-Clean Diet Workout Journal
Tosca also offers a separate book, The Eat-Clean Diet Workout Journal
What was really neat about doing Tosca’s exercises was that I learned how to do several of the exercises with free weights that I currently do with my resistance bands. So, if one of my bands ever broke I could use my free weights, or I could use free weights for a change once in awhile. If I were going to really get into free weights though, I’d need to get a bench.
What about you? Do you prefer free weights, machines, resistance bands, or something else? Are you a serious weight lifter, or are you into building muscle tone and strength for your overall health and well-being?
I like Tosca too and I have her Eat-Clean Diet book. I was already following a clean nutrition plan, MOST OF THE TIME. It doesn’t take many days of not eating clean to wreck you. Anyway I use free weights, machines, anything new for fun. I want to build as much muscle as possible. I also do a lot of cardio for fat burning, and simply feeling good. I love to workup a good sweat first thing in the morning.
I have all of these books too, but haven’t really done much with the workbook but thumb through it. I bought it to get ideas for workouts for my clients. I love the other 2 books though! The Eat Clean Diet book I recommend to all of my clients!
A suggestion for lack of the bench…could you do some of the exercises on a stability ball? I do a lot of things on the ball instead of the bench, because then I am using more of my core!
Angie’s last blog post..The Calorie Burner
Hi Renee,
Yeah, I know what you mean, if you start eating the processed gunk for a few days, you can really get dragged down quickly. Amazing how food can do that, isn’t it?
Makes sense though, because it’s a chemical process (the metabolizing of what you eat), and if you eat stuff that’s not so clean, it’s going to gunk up the machinery. 😉
From what you’ve said, it sounds like you’ve got some muscle like Tosca, keep it up! 🙂
Hi Angie,
Thanks very much for the tip on the stability ball, I don’t have one of those. That would also be easier to store and move around than a bench would, thanks! 🙂
Goes to show that you are never too old to improve your life.
Andrew is getting fit’s last blog post..A run up a volcano
I am thoroughly convinced in a healthy eating routine. The key for me is listening and understanding what my body is telling me. Example: After a 1-2 hour intense workout,just below or above my AT (anaerobic threshold). My body is sugar deprived, so my solution has been juice, oranges etc. If the workout is all weight lifting, a diet consisting of much protein is part of the plan. Just a couple of many examples from my end.
Another great post JoLynn!
Mark Salinas, MN
LOVE THE LINKS!!
thanks for these as always,
M.
MizFit’s last blog post..and the winner o’the YouBars is:
Hi Andrew,
Exactly, it’s never too late!
Hi Mark,
You’re spot on – listening to your own body. You’re the one that knows what works for you. 😉
For me fruit juice is too high in sugar, even though it’s natural sugar (it’s too much for my sugar addiction), but I love fresh fruit and I eat that with protein and complex carbs before I workout.
In this book Tosca doesn’t get so much into the food part because that’s in her other book, but that’s what I do (and I always eat after working out).
Thanks again for your wonderful feedback! 🙂