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Posts Tagged ‘core fitness’

A fattening, unhealthy look at some of the worst foods you can eat for breakfast.

Bacon!

Doughnuts

You knew it was coming, so may as well get it over with. Whether glazed, powdered, or cream-filled, doughnuts were made to be delicious ways to begin or interrupt your day. What they were not created for was to be a healthy way to get your day started right. Many companies have made it their mission to create the ultimate healthy doughnut, but every attempt has come off less tasty than the original. Instead of settling for something that tastes less than the best, leave doughnuts of all shapes, sizes, and health on the shelf.

Kids’ Cereals

You never want to grow up. You love your big-kid toys and your big-kid video games, and you’re still eating the same cereal you were when you were in elementary school. Unfortunately, those brightly colored, sugary sweet cereals have not become any healthier over the years. In fact, researchers from Yale University state that these kid-friendly cereals that are full of sugar and artificial flavors are usually less healthy than any cereals made for adults. So if your kids are eating the same colorful cereals as you, you’ll all need to change. Instead, look for something with four grams of fiber and less than four grams of sugar per serving.

Energy Bars

They’re crammed full of protein and go-get-em, and they fit in the palm of your hand. So what’s the problem? The problem is that alongside all that energy-boosting protein, there is also a lot of fat and calories. If you don’t spend adequate time each day to get rid of these extra fats and calories, your whole body is going to feel the extra pounds piling on. Instead of grabbing an energy bar for breakfast, only eat them right before or after an intense workout. That way you’re keeping your body fueled properly, but you’re also burning off most of the stuff you don’t want stuck to your hips.

Front Seat Foods

The mother of all bad breakfast foods is breakfast on the go. While fast-food breakfast is convenient and relatively inexpensive, it is also one of the worst ways to fill your stomach in the morning. Some of the most common options are sausage or chicken biscuits; biscuits and gravy; or bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits. Make any of these items at home and you’ll be on the border of unhealthy. Pick them up at a fast-food restaurant and you’re guaranteed a dose of artery-slowing, fat-producing food, served in a Styrofoam carton with a side of orange juice. And no, the 100% natural orange juice doesn’t magically turn gravy into a harmless or healthy substance.

Don’t think it can be done? You’re about to be very surprised.

When you walk into the labor and delivery room, your belly is bulging. If the baby stays inside you one more day, you fear your stomach will simply explode. And when the contractions are over and your new little one has arrived, you look down and realize a shocking fact: your baby didn’t take all the extra weight from your body.

You can lose the weight!

Want to shave off 40 weeks of weight gain? Read on to get a few tried-and-true methods to get you back on the road to light.

Breastfeed. You may plan to have your baby feed on a bottle when you go back to work, but if you really want to see pounds fall by the wayside, nothing works as well as breastfeeding. Okay – so the jury is still out about whether breastfeeding will really get rid of those pregnancy pounds, but it’s definitely worth a try. Even if it doesn’t work, it won’t cause you to gain weight, and you’ll boost your newborn’s immunity and reduce your likelihood for breast cancer in the future in the process.

Eat. Before you got pregnant, you had to watch what you ate to maintain a healthy weight. Now that you’ve had baby, the same watchfulness is needed to lose pregnancy weight. If you’re breastfeeding your baby, do not cut back on your calorie intake. Regardless of whether you’re breastfeeding or using the bottle, don’t eat high-calorie or high-fat foods. Rather, go for anything stuffed with lots of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Need more information on nutrition? Check out our Killeen Fitness Boot Camp Nutrition page.

Sleep. Though sleeping doesn’t sound like something that is going to help you shed pounds, not getting good sleep is a sure way to hang onto pregnancy pounds. According to research, insufficient sleep increases stress levels, which can in turn increase your weight. On top of the stress-induced weight gain, feeling sleepy also makes you less likely to feel like exercising – a major way you can help your body fend off the weight that doesn’t look quite as cute now that it isn’t accompanied by a pregnant belly.

Exercise. Though you don’t want to jump headfirst into an intense workout regiment immediately after giving birth, you should begin implementing exercise into your daily routine as soon as possible. During the first few days after giving birth, go for a short walk. If it hurts of you get tired, stop and take a rest. Giving birth is a traumatic event on your body, and it can take a while to recover. Allow your body to recover in its own time, but don’t stop trying to help it along. 6 weeks after baby comes, jump back into working out at the boot camp.

Exercise Some More. Even if you breastfeed, eat right, get nine hours of sleep each night, and take a walk around the block each day, you may still a few pounds that cling on for dear life. If this happens to you, you will need to increase the amount and intensity of your exercises. For fun ways to exercise, check into “Mommy and Me” exercise classes that allow you to spend time with your child and get fit at the same time. You may also want to make your way back into the gym as soon as possible for some weight training. To make sure your routine isn’t putting you at risk, talk with your physician before beginning anything strenuous.

I wasn’t smart enough to write this, but still thought that it applied well to our Fitness Boot Campers…

Five Reasons Why Strong Women Are Sexy

By Josh Hanagarne
1. Strength implies dedication. When I see a woman who values strength, I see someone who knows the value of perseverance and commitment.

2. Strength implies a healthy sense of priorities. The current portrayal of how women’s bodies should look is pure poison. I’m hearing more about sexy “clavicles” these days, of all things! Take a look at some female kettlebellers and you’ll know what I mean.

3. Strength defies society’s portrayal of how women should be. Society does not value physical strength in women. The women in vogue are emaciated and bug-eyed, without any muscle tone. They are bony clothes hangers and I don’t know how that appeals to anyone. The physically strong woman resists the siren song of the anorexic crackhead look and makes her body do what feels good. And again, if you give your body what it needs, it’s going to look good.

4. Strength leads to confidence. When you choose to do something as difficult as real strength training with demonstrable results, it changes your body and your mind at the same time. Confidence is very attractive.

5. Strength training helps you age gracefully. Weak young women become weak old women. Strong young women become elegant, strong, confident women. In short, there’s no downside to being strong. People that are attracted to weakness are normally attracted to vulnerability and there’s not much potential upside to that.

Welcome our new athletes!

Alisa Kirkland

Sara Bracamonte

Welcome Jose Torres to the Mat Ratz kids Jiu-Jitsu class!

We would like to welcome new athletes into our boot camp family!

Leslie Inman

Amanda Hall

Lisa Sweeny

I would like to welcome two new athletes to our fitness family:

Tatiana Behrmann

Sarah Prosser

SIMPLE
The first answer is whatever works. Whatever is effective is good self defense. Whatever gives you the greatest chance of survival is good self defense. That being said, there are a few factors that need to be considered. Think of the worst possible scenario. Chances are you will be attacked when your assailant feels he has a distinct advantage. That means you must assume he will be larger, determined, armed and has friends. Anything you do must account for these real possibilities. Until you are proven other wise, chances are you won’t know for ure until it’s too late.

DIRECT AND DEVASTATING
Time is of the essence, you need to cause as much damage to your target and as little damage to yourself. Techniques that take a lot of time just don’t cut it. Methods that cause you to wait just don’t cut it. You have to inflict as much damage as fast as possible. Lead with speed, follow with power and take bits and pieces away from your assailant as you cause more damage and injury. The techniques you use should allow to hit anywhere on your targets body and cause little or no damage to you. You must react in a way that allows you to keep your assailant off balance and build momentum until he’s no longer a threat and allow for a swift escape.

ENVIRONMENT
Next, you need to consider your environment. Asphalt, ice, snow, jungle, beach, the woods or your living room, each situation presents a unique set of circumstances. You need to react in a way that takes all of this into consideration. Simple foot work done in the correct manner will account for every possible scenario. Then you have to consider yourself. Chances are you will appear to be a good target. This means you’re older, smaller, injured or otherwise distracted. Remember Murphy’s law- what can go wrong will go wrong. You also have to consider what happens to your body when you are placed under hormone induced stress or fear. You get tunnel vision; you lose control of your fine motor skills. You experience auditory exclusion and as your hear rate increases your ability to perform even the most simple techniques.

TRAIN FOR LIFE
When you train, it’s for your worst nightmare. The guy who just got out of prison or the junkie who doesn’t care what belt you have. Criminals just want what you have, plain and simple. You have to plan for the absolute worst case scenario. Also, you should have a little nasty surprise for your would be attacker. Empty hand techniques are nice but WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY beat empty hands time and time again.

Do you have a self defense plan in place for your home? Do you feel prepared to defend your life or a family members? If the answer to any of these is no, then you need Self Defense training.

Call Jim at (254) 247-4999 to schedule a free class in our Self Defense Program.

I would like to welcome Becky Honer to our Boot Camp family!!!