Bio: Don’t let Tracey Mallett’s petite build fool you. She might be a mere 5 feet 3 inches and have chiseled abs, but she can relate to the seesawing numbers many women glare at on the bathroom scale. Mallett, the mother of children ages 4 and 6, packed on 55 pounds when pregnant for the first time and had a hard time losing the baby weight. And she’s in the fitness industry.
A Pilates teacher, sports nutritionist and creator of more than a dozen DVD workouts, Mallett, 36, has written “Sexy in 6: Sculpt Your Body with the 6 Minute Quick-Blast Workout” (Da Capo Press, $26, hardback and instructional DVD).
Despite the book’s title, Mallett’s not promising that you can actually lose weight and inches by working out for six minutes. The idea is that doing two to three of those six-minute sessions per day and eating a healthy diet will put you on a path to a better body.
The journey: Growing up in England, Mallett studied dance from a young age, but her dedication to fitness and a healthy lifestyle didn’t start until she dodged a major health crisis herself. Her mother and a number of the women on her mom’s side of the family have had breast cancer. When Mallett learned she didn’t carry the genetic marker for the disease that some of her relatives did, she dedicated herself to helping people get healthy at whatever stage they were in.
“One of my mom’s sisters died when she was only 32 years old,” Mallett said during a recent trip to Denver. While there’s no guarantee Mallett won’t get cancer, it makes her feel better to work out, eat well and manage her health to be as strong as possible to fight disese.
“I still feel like a survivor and am paranoid about it,” she admitted.
In preparing to write her book, Mallett recruited 90 women from age 20 to 60 to try her plan. She found that those who stuck with it lost pounds and inches. Quotes from “Team Mallett” are sprinkled throughout the book, encouraging readers to stay motivated. The participants gained confidence and the “sexy” factor that women often lose when they’re consumed with work and family, forgetting their own needs, Mallett says.
The plan: Short and simple cardio and weight-training sessions designed to burn maximum calories can be squeezed in between all the other tasks a woman has to do each day. Mallett offers customizable workouts targeted to different body types like “pears” or “apples” or areas that need conditioning, such as the butt or abdominals. A typical day includes 12 minutes of exercise in the morning and a six-minute evening session. A mental component with yoga-style meditation and movement is also part of the program.
Getting in shape also doesn’t need to involve a lot of equipment, Mallett says, just a stability ball, light hand weights and DVD player if you want to follow instructions on a video monitor.
Other tools in the book include instructions for creating food logs, workout logs and progress sheets. Music suggestions for working out and menu ideas are also offered.
Mallett met her future husband, a physical therapist, in 1996 when she was performing in a production of the musical “Grease” onboard a cruise ship. They now live in California and own ATP Specific Training and Physical Therapy in South Pasadena. Mallett said juggling work, marriage, kids and her own exercise plan can be tricky, but she’s grateful to be healthy.
“I’m in better shape now than before I had kids,” she says.
EXERCISE
Mallett teaches a number of classes at the business she and her husband run, but she has to consciously schedule her own workouts to stay fit. An advocate of cross-training, she likes to run and cycle, as well as take group fitness classes.
DIET
Six small meals per day and an emphasis on lean protein, fish, vegetables and beans are Mallett’s gold standard. To make sure the family has plenty of healthy food to eat early in the week, she cooks extra on the weekends. Smoothies with fruit and added protein are staples.
