[abcollins1]

I have naturally thick curly hair, cant say that ive had any issues poling with it, but im not very advanced yet.

Anyways, i do a lot of the same R34 said. I only wash my hair about 2 times a week, though i have to wet my hair everyday to style it. I typically will use a very heavy conditioner everyday to help with the frizz. Once a week I use a claryifying shampoo to take out all of the buildup from all the products i use, and another time I will use a moisturizing/hydrating shampoo, because you dont need more volume with thick hair!

I also use a leave in conditioner and use a curl definer spritz so control frizz and keep the curls curly.

I do brush my hair when wet because just doing it with my hands will not work on my hair. But I do have to have a specific type of brush to prevent damage. Once i get the tangles out, the brush doesnt touch my hair.

With drying the hair, you either have to let air dry or blow dry using the diffuser ONLY! Just straight blow drying results in the curls separating, air drying is best but takes up to 2 hours with my hair.

Also, as R34 said, DONT TOUCH!! Once its styled dont mess with it or the curls with just frizz.

For products, I have found that the cheap ones do not work on my hair. My hair really does best with the better quality hair care products. I do not know why and i dont know if everyones hair is that way. I just noticed a huge difference with the products i use.

For shampoo/conditioner i use Paul Mitchell, Redken or Aveeda.

My curl definer is Bed Head Foxy Curls and when i want straight hair, i use a babyliss 2" flat iron (much less than 100 bucks and works just as good as the more expensive brands) and a product from SexyHair called Straight Sexy.

Biolage makes a good hair mask conditioner that i like. Works really nicely on my hair.

[abcollins1]

As i stated I do not have an x-pert pole. I have a stainless steel 45mm lil mynx rotator, which i chose over a x-pert pole for several reasons. This is why i wrote that it was not the exact pole OP was asking about, it was just my thought process on material and size which i thought would help.

[abcollins1]

I bought my first pole and chose 45 mm stainless steel, its not x-pert but i can give you an idea of why i chose it.

So far I am really liking the stainless and glad i did not go with powder coated or anything else. I dont tend to sweat over much or have sweaty palms and stainless is slippery enough to me to do spins on. I have danced on brass and didnt like it (just personal choice).

I went with 45mm because i thought 50mm felt to big and 40 mm felt too small, but like goldilocks, 45 was just right. I have small hands and my hands just didnt grip the 50 and the 40 was pretty hard for me to climb. so 45 was perfect. Also, from reading on here, I get the impression 45 seems like the norm in competitons so I thought it another plus to train for my goals.

On top of that I went with a spinning/static combo because i kew that I would want to learn both and didnt want to buy 2 poles (although I want a portable pole so eventually I will buy another pole 🙂 LOL) 

I know its not the exact pole you were asking about but i thought my thinking process on my first purchase might help you out.

[abcollins1]

Just wanted to let everyone know thanks to this thread, I won $100 of credit and was able to get 3 pairs of shoes plus 1 pair of leg warmers for a grand total of $47, shipping and tax included. I know mine will take a while to come in because all of mine were a special order, but its a pretty awesome deal!

I also clicked on everyone elses picks to share the love!

[abcollins1]

I think with naming a business, you need to find what sets you apart from the rest of your competition, and you need to target your specific audience with your name/brand. As webmaster said, you also need to be looking at your online presence as well, so web sites, facebook pages, twitter, blogs, all are really useful and need to be coherent.

Since we dont have a clear picture of what you are trying to do with your business, its really hard to say what would be a good fit name-wise.  Im not a big fan of any of the names that you posted, I just dont feel they fit, but again I dont really know what you are really trying to do.

When I named my business, It just sorta clicked. Since i am a military spouse, and i generally work with either military members or their spouses, MilSpouse Fitness was born. I own both

http://www.milspousefitness.com as my blog

and http://www.milspousefitness.biz as my website, I have a facebook page as well. I am still very much a small business, but always growing. I know some things are going to change in the future and i have a lot of projects going on right now, but the name fits with what i do and there is pretty much no mistaking it.

 

[abcollins1]

There is a HUGE difference between starving yourself and being on a lower caloried diet. For instanace, my maintenance calories are 2300. To lose weight i subtract 500 cals for a 1 pound lose per week, so thats 1800 cals. now that is hardly starving myself.

To get a bigger calores deficit, i can add exercise, lets say 250 cals per day times 6 will get me another 1500 cal deficit, so i am now losing 1.5 pounds a week. And by keeping most foods healthy, i can eat quiet a bit and not be starving.

Its really quite simple and healthy. No starving, no crazy scheme. If i was not exercising i would still be losing weight, just not as fast (1 pound a week as opposed to 1.5 pounds a week).

In order to do this, you need to know how many cals you are currently eating, which is why i suggested journeling.

And again, if you are poling you are building a base of muscle to work with.

I did my last competion in April, dropped 12 pounds in 12 weeks. Now i am in my off season, and trying to GAIN muscle adn strength which requires that I eat more. You must eat for your goal. If your diet IE what you eat- is off then everything else will be off.

[abcollins1]

There is a HUGE difference between starving yourself and being on a lower caloried diet. For instanace, my maintenance calories are 2300. To lose weight i subtract 500 cals for a 1 pound lose per week, so thats 1800 cals. now that is hardly starving myself.

To get a bigger calores deficit, i can add exercise, lets say 250 cals per day times 6 will get me another 1500 cal deficit, so i am now losing 1.5 pounds a week. And by keeping most foods healthy, i can eat quiet a bit and not be starving.

Its really quite simple and healthy. No starving, no crazy scheme. If i was not exercising i would still be losing weight, just not as fast (1 pound a week as opposed to 1.5 pounds a week).

In order to do this, you need to know how many cals you are currently eating, which is why i suggested journeling.

And again, if you are poling you are building a base of muscle to work with.

I did my last competion in April, dropped 12 pounds in 12 weeks. Now i am in my off season, and trying to GAIN muscle adn strength which requires that I eat more. You must eat for your goal. If your diet IE what you eat- is off then everything else will be off.

[abcollins1]

Im not theoretical, most of the public knows zilch about nutrition. Hence why i am reiterizing the fact that our main sources of carbs should be from fruits and vegetables. If you dont know that a fruit or veggie is a carb, then how do you know what to use as the base of a diet?

Also, I am assuming that since the OP is on a poling sight, that she is indeed doing ab exercises and cardio by poling, so i did not address that part.

Abs are made in the kitchen. In order to lower body fat, you must be eating the correct calories. Diet alon is responsible for lowering body fat. Since op is poling she should be building muslces and have enough of a base to work off of, especially since she specifically stated she could feel her muscles.

Again you can not out train, out supplement or out cardio a bad diet. ANY personal trainer can tellyou that. You want abs, then your cals must be on point. There is no supplement out there that can do it, and since you cant spot reduce, no exercise which will make your abs pop. You must lower body fat and that come with diet. If your diet is not on point, then you wont lower body fat  and you wont see abs.

And yes, body fat reduction can be done with just diet alone. Its just a lot slower process. And yes it can be done in a healthy manner.

 

[abcollins1]

All of those studies include obese individuals who began an exercise program. ALL it proves is that you lose weight with exercise, not that the CLA ALONE was responsible for fat loss. Any obese person who begins an exercise program is goign to lose fat.

[abcollins1]

Im not trying to be mean, but when someone is asking for help in losing fat, saying "i stopped eating any carbs" is false, misleading and can result in someone trying to cut carbs out of a diet, which can be unhealthy and is not the correct way to go about losing fat. Its best not to cut any food out of a diet barring any medical conditions. Which is why i commented on that fact so OP did not believe it was necessary or true. You did not stop eating all carbs as you stated. You simply cut some foods that were not good for you, which is a better way to state it.

Even during competition diets, i still eat chocolate every day. I am easily able to work it into my plan and still lose 1 -2 lbs a week.  So eating "specific" foods to lose weight is unneccesary.

OP specifically asked about abs, and genetics are only going to play a portion in that. if OP wants a six pack, its all in the diet, not in genetics. Im not saying she has to look "perfect" or like a "supermodel" but if you want your abs to pop, then its following a low cal diet until you reach the body fat level you need for them pop. How much fat we carry is not due to genetics. How much fat we carry is all in how much do we eat. Personally i can see abs at about 20% body fat, other women i know need to be at 16% which is very low for a woman.  Seeing abs is not genetic.

[abcollins1]

hydrogenated oils do not "go to your belly". Hydrogenated oils actually tend to stick to our internall organs, more typically the heart, since it is a man made chemical which the body is uncertain what to do with.

 The reason why you lost weight is because these oils tend to be in highly processed foods high in calories (butter, some oils, some nut butters, etc). cutting out hydrogenated oils cut down in cals, hence the weight loss.

There is no such thing as as "abs diet" since you can not spot reduce. There is no scientific evidence that CLA helps lose fat.

There is also no such thing as clean eating, foods are not "clean" or "dirty". they are not good or bad. There is food that is more nutritios or less nutrious, but that is all. Labeling something clean or dirty is just a marketing ploy. this is the basis of food and body issues. Making something be "bad" or "the devil" is not a healthy way to look at anything. Look at foods as "is this the best most healthy thing to eat, or will this bring me closer to the goals i want" not Oh im bad cause i had a cupcake. Make an informed choice of what to eat and why. Not a thing of guilt and shame.

Beware fad diets and false info. There is no substiture for eating a healthy well balanced diet.

[abcollins1]

remember that fruits and veggies are carbs!! I find it very hard to believe someone who says "i dont eat carbs", so you are saying you only eat meat and nothing else? no beans, no apples, no dairy, no potatoes, no nuts,  nothing but meat. Hard to believe and not very balanced at all.

And you really dont need more than 1 g of protein per pound of body weight, scientific studies have proven that anything over that amount does not help to lose weight or build muscle.

And dont let genetics be an excuse, yes we all have different types of bodies, but it has nothing to do with losing fat. We all lose fat with the same scientific priniciples. Some are going to find it harder to lose than others, but the principles are all the same. I find a lot of people think that it is their genetics to be a certain way when in fact the way they eat and exercise is the reason they look the way they do. They use genetics as a crutch rather than making a change to their habits to look the way they want.

 

[abcollins1]

Losing fat is ALL about diet. In order to lose fat, your diet has to be correct. That means you need to be in the correct calorie deficet for your body. I suggest you track your calories for at least 3 days to see how much and when you are eating. If you are gaining weight then you are over eating your calories.

PA, is correct you can not spot reduce fat loss, it comes from all over, not from where we choose it.

If you carry a lot of weight in your stomach, you will probably have to be at a very low bodyfat percentage to get six pack abs. Going that low means you have to pay very close attention to diet and especially your mix of carbs, proteins and fats.

Cardio does not make you lose fat, you can do all the cardio in the world, but if you are over eating you will not lose anything.  Cardio is the last part of the equation and is used to help burn calories to put you in a lower calorie deficet. You must control diet first.

You can not out train, out supplement or out cardio a bad diet.

Look to lose 1 – 2 pounds a week for safe effective weight loss. Any more that that and you will be losing  more muscle than fat, which is bad. Losing muscle you will not only lose some strength you also lose a valuble fat burning tool.

[abcollins1]

Im 31 ( closer to 32!) and just started pole. I have 2 kids, 5 and 7. Of course you can pole and make changes to your body!  No one is ever too old to make changes. I know some 40 year old ladies with awesome bodies even after kids!! You can be as good as you want to be, you just need consistant practice and focus on flexibility and eventually you will get where you want to be!

 

[abcollins1]

I have some mika yoga wear that i really like, and i have body by brazil shorts and tops that are cute and good. I just bought a Victorias secret workout skirt too. A girl in one of my classes had one and it was super cute. I will have to check out luvlee's video!