Posts Tagged ‘harker heights bootcamp’

Welcome Juliana Attilio to our Morning Boot Camp Class!

Welcome our new athletes!

Lynjoy Watson

Yvonne Tanner

Welcome our newest Athletes!

Elizabeth Marshall

Alison Cruz

Welcome to our family!

Maggie Jimenez

Adriana Silva

Looking for a cool salad to fill you up this summer? Here’s a delicious recipe from my partners over at Prograde Nutrition for you.

Roasted Red Pepper Chicken and Avocado Salad
1 medium ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced

1 tsp.  lemon juice

1 bag (10 oz.) torn romaine lettuce (about 10 cups)

2 cups  shredded cooked chicken

1 medium tomato, cut into wedges

1 small  cucumber, sliced

1/4 of a medium Vidalia or Walla Walla onion, chopped

½ cup Red Pepper

1/2 cup  Light or Fat-free Italian Dressing

¼ cup Parmesan Cheese

Directions:
Toss avocados with lemon juice in large salad bowl.

Add lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions; mix lightly.

Add dressing; toss to coat.

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Serve immediately.

Hey, if you like that one they’ve got 196 more! Seriously, Prograde has a really cool 197 Healthy and Delicious Fat Burning Recipes ebook for just $4.95!

Check it out here: http://jimmahan.getprograde.com/prograderecipebook.html

For your cheat day!

Much like Chicken Saltimbocca, this is chicken smothered in Parmesan cheese and rolled with mozzarella and prosciutto and baked in white wine.

Categories: Lunch, Dinner, Low Carb, High Protein

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 4 teaspoons butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
• 10 ounces sliced whole milk mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Pound chicken breasts flat, and lay them on work surface.
3. Sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese on both sides.
4. Place a pinch of minced garlic and 1 teaspoon butter in the center of each breast.
5. Cover each breast with a layer of prosciutto and mozzarella cheese.
6. Reserve some of the prosciutto to place on top of the chicken.
7. Roll up each chicken breast, and secure with toothpicks.
8. In a 9×13 inch baking dish, combine white wine and olive oil.
9. Arrange chicken rolls in dish.
10. Place a small piece of prosciutto on top of each roll, and sprinkle with pepper.
11. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink, an juices run clear.

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.

Our classes are maxing out! We are adding TWO MORE time slots for you!!! Starting July 1, 2010:

Early AM M-W-F
Noon M-W-F

…You must preregister for these slots, we only have space for 10 folks per class.

If you are an existing athlete and want one of these, contact Jim for details.

Don’t delay or you’ll lose out!

Painless insight into the various types of headache coming to a skull near you.

Inside your head sits one of your most important body parts. Your head is also a center of potentially debilitating pain. What kind of headache are you dealing with? What is the best way to treat it? Use this chart to get a handle on your headaches.

Acute Headache

Symptoms: The most common type of headache, acute headaches cause pain the head that is usually short-lived and mild in intensity.

Causes: Causes of acute headaches are wide-ranging. A few include illness, infection, and skipping meals.

Treatment: Many acute headaches can be taken care of with over-the-counter pain medication, eating, drinking water, or waiting it out.

Prevention: Recognize triggers that cause you to suffer an acute headache and avoid them.

Cluster Headache

Symptoms: A group of extremely painful headaches that occur multiple times in a single day on a regular basis over a period of weeks or months without warning, cluster headaches typically affect only one side of the head behind the eye or near the eye. They usually last 30 to 45 minutes at a time, though the pain can stick around for a few hours and cause the sufferer to not be able to sit still.

Causes: It is unclear what causes cluster headaches, but most people who suffer from cluster headaches regularly smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.

Treatment: Treating cluster headaches requires prescription pain medication

Prevention: Since it is unclear what causes cluster headaches, it is impossible to create a foolproof prevention plan. However, not smoking or drinking alcohol excessively will reduce your chance of a cluster headache.

Migraine Headache

Symptoms: Occasionally moderate, often severe, migraine pain can last a few hours or a few days. In some instances, the sufferer also experiences abdominal pain; loss of appetite; nausea or vomiting; blurred vision; dizziness; and extreme sensitivity to light, noise, or odors. They can come a few times a month or only one or two times a year.

Causes: It’s unclear exactly what causes migraines. What is known is that they have to do with changes in the brain, inherited brain abnormalities, and the contraction of blood vessels in the brain.

Treatment: Typical treatment for migraines includes a strong prescription medication and lifestyle changes to reduce your likelihood of future migraines

Prevention: Though you cannot always keep migraines at bay, you can reduce your likelihood of a migraine by reducing the stresses in your life, getting an appropriate amount of sleep (not too much or too little), avoiding caffeine and alcohol, and not missing meals.

Sinus Headache

Symptoms: Causing a deep, constant pain in the cheekbones, bridge of the nose, or forehead, sinus headaches usually grow worse when you move your head quickly and are usually experienced with other symptoms of a sinus infection, such as facial swelling, nasal discharge, fever, and feelings that your ears are full of fluid.

Causes: One of the sinus cavities (located in the cheekbones, bridge of the nose, and forehead) becomes infected, causing inflammation that prevents mucous from flowing past the sinuses.

Treatment: In order to overcome a sinus headache, you will need to beat your sinus infection using antibiotics. You may also find symptomatic relief by using over-the-counter antihistamines and pain medication.

Prevention: Avoiding sinus headaches requires you to avoid sinus infections. To do that, wash your hands regularly, stay away from people with cold symptoms, drink plenty of water, eat a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables, and don’t smoke.

Tension Headache

Symptoms: The muscles located between your head and neck seem to contract for hours or even days at a time, causing a continuous, pulling pain that is focused in the temples, forehead, or back of the head or neck.

Causes: Stress; fatigue; psychological problems; arthritis; bad posture; abnormalities in the neck muscles, bones, or discs; grief; or depression can all bring on tension headaches.

Treatment: Beat tension headaches by taking medications to reduce inflammation and pain or relax the neck muscles. You should also work with your physician to determine the underlying cause of the headache and receive appropriate care for that condition.

Prevention: Regular use of pain or other medication can help prevent tension headaches, as can stress reduction techniques and improved posture.

Welcome John Von Hagen!

Something isn’t quite right about your exercise routine. You’re about to find out what it is.

You don’t go to the gym to hang out. You’re there to get fit, to feel better, and to gain more energy to get through your stressful day. So why is it not working? Here are a few common reasons your body may not be responding how you want it to after a good hour or two at the gym.

Your Body Has Peaked

If you’ve been working out for a while and have stopped seeing the results you saw during the first few weeks, your body may have hit its peak. This happens most often when you perform the same exercises over and over, day after day, without any change in your routine. But don’t worry – you can get past this problem with relative ease. All you have to do is add some variety and spice into your routine.

An easy way to do this is by changing the type of weights you use. If you usually workout exclusively with plate weights, grab some dumbbells – or better yet, kettlebells. If that isn’t enough to get your body to start responding to gym time, talk with a personal trainer about new exercises to sprinkle into your regimen for continual improvement.

You’re Not Committed

Many people get frustrated with their gym routines only to realize they aren’t spending enough time in the gym to see any noticeable difference. And while you may spend hours each day thinking about how you need to get in the gym, thinking isn’t doing. Yes, the right mindset will improve your physical fitness and help you push your body in the gym, but you’ve got to be in the gym to actually push your body.

If you’re spending two hours in the gym every day but leave without any results, you may be committed to visiting the gym, but not using the gym. When working out, make sure you’re giving 100 percent the entire time. That doesn’t mean you have to lift hundreds of pounds with each repetition, but you should be focused, using proper posture and moving from one exercise to the next without a 20-minute water break between each set.

Your Diet Doesn’t Mesh

Working out regularly is a must if you’re going to obtain optimal fitness. But if you think you can eat whatever you want on your way to good health, think again. Your exercise routine is only as good as your diet. Therefore, eating a healthy diet is essential to making the most of your gym time.

In fact, if you don’t eat healthily, you probably won’t feel up to pushing yourself in the gym, making it even harder to reap the rewards you so desperately want. To make sure your gym time is well spent, you may need to modify your diet to include more fresh fruits and vegetables, fewer late-night snacks, and more lean protein sources, such as lean meat and peanut butter.

You Can’t See

If you’re like many people, you may be your worst critic. While everyone around you is gawking at how good you look, you wish you could lose three more pounds and another inch or two from your waist. How do you get over this problem? With a diary.

When you begin working out, keep track of your routine, noting repetitions, weight lifted, and time spent on the treadmill. Over time, you will certainly notice an improvement in your endurance, strength, and overall fitness – even if your waistline isn’t the tiny circle you think it ought to be. Keeping track of fitness in this way helps you keep a healthy tab on your improvements over time and will keep you committed to the gym and a healthy diet!

Need help? Call me at 254-247-3668 to set a free fitness consultation!

Is your diet lending your heart a helping hand or kicking it to the curb?

When it comes to body parts your body can’t do without, the heart is king. But if you’re like many people, you may be treating your beloved heart like an ignored servant. How can you make sure your heart receives a kingly welcome? By eating right.

The Basics

First, it’s a good idea to know what heart-healthy eating actually is. Contrary to popular belief, a diet that is heart healthy isn’t going to keep you from eating anything with flavor. You’re not going to be miserable while on a heart-healthy diet. Actually, you shouldn’t go on a heart-healthy diet – at least not one that lasts for a few months and fades away with your New Year’s resolutions.

Rather, you should maintain heart-healthy eating habits every day of the year.
The simplest recipe for heart-healthy eating habits is to go natural. Most foods you find in nature and eat in their raw or cooked forms are very good for you and many of them actively work to strengthen your heart. On the other hand, manmade foods that are highly processed or infused with ingredients that add flavor and fat often put your heart in harm’s way.

The Battles

Fats and cholesterol can be very dangerous to your heart health. Hence why you should avoid them as much as possible. However, since it’s nearly impossible to rid your diet entirely of all types of fats and cholesterol, you’ll need to choose your battles wisely.

Battles worth fighting in the fat realm are those battles against saturated fat and trans fat. By carefully reading food labels and reducing the amount of butter and other fatty products you eat on a regular basis, you can sidestep the majority of these dangerous fats. Instead of saturated and trans fats, look for foods that contain monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats. Believe it or not, these fats may actually help lower your cholesterol.

Reading food labels will also help you manage the amount of cholesterol you consume. Ideally, a healthy adult will consume no more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol each day. For even better health, try to get no more than 150 or 200 milligrams on a daily basis.

The Salt

A third battle that is often overlooked is the ongoing battle against salt. Though it adds immediate flavor to anything you’re eating, salt also adds to your risk for high blood pressure. As high blood pressure is a key risk factor for heart disease, you ought to pay careful attention to how much salt you eat each day.

According to the American Heart Association, you should consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of salt each day. One of the best ways to avoid going over the recommended limit is to resist the temptation to flavor your food with salt until you take a bite of the food. Some foods are naturally salty and have no need for you to add salt from the shaker. Taking a bite before adding salt may even help you enjoy the natural flavor of the food you’re eating. Over time, your saltshaker may be collecting dust in the pantry!