I started thinking about that arm flappage and I had another idea … tigers. Tigers are obviously in shape, but what on them hangs and swings? Their entire mid-section—the belly. Gravity pulls on it all the time and there it goes to the south. What appendage do we have that is perpendicular to the floor several times a day? Our arms when we are exercising, reaching, bringing in a jetliner on the tarmac, hailing a cab or waving from our 4^th of July float. These actions coupled with gravity and age can lead to … tiger belly arms. So what is the fix?

Thinking outside of the box and having a strong back, I do most, not all, but most of Tracy’s flapping arm exercises with my feet further than hip distance apart, toes forward, slight squat, chest forward so my back looks like an extreme ski slope, neck inline with spine, and I have at it with the arms. BIG difference. I’m making the triceps (back of arm) work from a slightly inverted position and I feel it in a good way afterwards. I would recommend this for women who have done the regular routine for a month several days a week and who have no back or shoulder complaints. I do some exercises leaning forward and then stand and continue as a relief and then back to the ski slope position. I don’t do the weights-in-hands exercises like this though. Try it and see if it works for you and if you feel it. This has been The Reviewer First Tip of the Day.

Inner thighs. Ugh. T-Rex didn’t do much in this department. I actually see sculpting on the outside of my thighs now, but total flab on the inside all up and down the thigh. I have added one exercise. One that I feel would be sanctioned by our star Tracy.

Here comes The Reviewer Second Tip of the Day: Face sideways to the chair and keep the lifting leg bent in “attitude” (slight bend of leg) while keeping it “turned out from the hip” (so you can look down and see the inner leg and inner heel as though there was a line drawn down the inside of your leg from the inside ankle bone to your crotch). Now keep the leg “frozen” in this turned-out-while-bent position and lift the leg up and down. Do her usual 20 on each side (although, yes, sometimes she does way more or less of an exercise from one side to the other but we aren’t going to pummel her for this.)

The standing legs routine is getting quite doable now. It’s not the misery when I first started. I wonder if I’ll think it will be easy one day? Ha! An important note here: Ms. Anderson occasionally says push with intensity. It’s easy for the first month to keep the leg soft and just get it up at all through the intense pain but as the body adjusts, we need to engage the muscle completely and make every movement high caliber. It’s easy to assume Tracy is coasting through her movements and that’s an honest assumption. Because Tracy HAS NO BODY FAT SO WE CAN’T SEE THE FLAB SHIFTING IN AN EFFORT TO RAISE THE LEG like we would on The Biggest Loser, or, me.

I have been inspired with the changes provided by Tracy’s Mat Workout and subsequently I decided to really, really look at what I was eating so that I could get more impressive results. I will post separately about this soon, but in the meantime, if you’re interested, start weaning yourself from:

• Oil, butter, margarine, sour cream
• High fructose corn syrup
• Sugar
• ANY artificial sweetener (even if they say it’s natural, healthy, etc.)
• Caffeine (WHAT?!)
• Milk (even skim)
• Junk or fast food (even if you’re going to pass out from hunger and Shape magazine said it was okay under certain clinical conditions)
• Soda
• Beer, wine, alcohol, martinis (regardless of how intoxicating their name sounds)
• Candy (even chocolate, even if you are in a PMS state)
• Cheese (cut waaaaayy back)
• Processed artificial chemical laden non-foods labeled as “food” (Wonder Bread, Twinkies, Hot Pockets, Cocoa Puffs, Cheese Whiz, etc.)
• Dessert (unless you have to be polite because a family member made it and then just one slice/square/serving)

I know this seems like you will then starve yourself, but even if you become aware of not having some of this stuff, some of the time, you’ll be making progress. If you already don’t do any of that stuff, then jolly good for you and your body loves you and so does the garment industry when you get to buy fantastic new clothes to accentuate that body of yours.