Strong is the New Skinny!

I just love this Blog, this lady has such wise advice. I want to share...

STRONG-IS-THE- NEW-SKINNY!

Tomorrow is my last day teaching SPIN at the OLD YMCA....

My current Spin Room at our YMCA...no A/C, we have to open the windows, our stereo connection to my iPhone has broken down, so I have to bring my own little stereo each time I teach....we have to move the bikes in and out of this room, as it is used for Yoga, Pilates, Seniors and Weights, etc....

but

Here is the NEW Cycle Room! 

Kinda looks like a fish bowl?  But pretty cool looking.  NO hard walls, all perfectly CLIMATE controlled , Surround SOUND! and the bikes won't ever have to leave it. Once they are IN, they will be there to stay!

I can't wait to try it out! My first class in there will have to be a GOOD one for sure!

A great week off with my hubby!

Today we took a break from digging large holes for tree's and gardening. ( we are completely doing our backyard landscaping ourselves---wow! it's a lot of work!  )

So today we took a day off from working in the yard and went to the Gym together, I packed us some protein oatmeal as our post workout snack.  Then we took our bikes to the local park and got on a trail...all was good until the path turned into a ROCK CLIFF with LARGE TREE'S and ROOTS everywhere!  yikes!  Not going to happen on a bike, So we stopped, and started hiking with our picnic lunch instead....we found this lovely spot in-between Inglis Falls and Harrison Park. ALL to ourselves, for our little picnic of strawberries, veggies, cheese and tuna fish salad.  Of course we brought a little bit of Frog Pond Organic wine from Niagara on the Lake as well.

What a great day!

Healthy Summer Snacks! Edamame Dip

Oxygen Women's Fitness | Blogs | Oxygen's Staff Blog

Eating well, and not realizing it

It is very true! It works!  Reducing your Carb intake slightly, increasing lean proteins, plenty of water, lots of fruits and veggies, and eating every couple of hours, works!

I have been trying this, very casually!  I still enjoy my wine, my popcorn, and I didn't want to put myself ON A DIET...but I just made a few little changes and I am so pleased with the results!

I am at my desired weight, and I can now see great definition in my Abs.  As you can see from previous posts, I started using lettuce wraps instead of bread ...I reduced my cheese intake, I only worked out about 3-4 times a week. I wasn't doing anything crazy. However, it worked!

Now I don't want to throw it all away, I am trying to keep up here as I am so pleased. Last night Alan and I were without kids, we had a date night. Normally we totally pig out. We LOVE food....we love RICH food,  It was a great summer evening!  However  I have a tight little dress to fit into for a party tonight, so I wanted to keep dinner yummy, tasty, yet light.  This is what I came up with.

I found a full Rainbow Trout at the grocery store. Bones still in, skin on, so I stuffed it with lemon, fresh herbs from my garden and garlic. Placed it  directly on the grill. Yes, try it! This is how they serve fish in Italy.

There were some little sausage stuffed peppers there as well. Perfect! Put them on the grill too!

I love Portabello's, so we grilled them, but I made a blue cheese sauce ( 1% sour cream and a tsp of blue cheese mixed together to make a creamy sauce)  Added some crispy grilled pancetta on top. Pure YUM!

Steam some mussels on the side burner with with white wine, chopped tomato and garlic.

Did the fish with the skin, and head freak you out a bit?  No worries. Like I said earlier, when we were in Italy ( Sardinia) they served all of their fish dishes like this.  You had the option to have the server de-bone it for you at your table, but not wanted to sound like a Princess...I  said.." I'm good! I can do this myself".  It is so easy.  The skin and bones fall off easily so you can get to the delicious moist meat.

Great night! 

and guess what?

No big tummy in the morning! HA!

SO I need to update my STATUS!

I am now officially a Certified Personal Trainer!



I am beyond delighted about this, as I have been working towards my final hurdle for the last 2 yrs now. It started with an interest in Fitness. From there I joined the  Theory Class for Fitness Training at our local Y.  After completing that, I moved onto Group Fitness and then followed up with the streams that I love the most.  Spinning, Resistance Training ( weights, boot camp, etc)  and then Core and Stretch.

The final journey, the big one?  PERSONAL Training.

After reading, learning, practicing for months, I finally took the plunge last Friday. Right after teaching an hour of Spin ( to get my mind off of the test) I did it.  WOOHOO! I passed!

It is great to find something that you are passionate about, something that you consider fun and part of your hobbies, and turn it into something you can DO for a living. 

Yummy Fish and Tropical Salsa Taco's!

I need your help naming this...I just made this up tonight and I have to say, it is one of my best healthy recipes I have made in such a long time!  The entire family loved it. Plus it is super low fat, high protein yet has tons of flavour.

I had mine on a lettuce wrap

The Salsa

Ingredients:

Salsa:

4 large strawberries
1 avocado
1 green onion
1/2 jalapeno pepper ( or to taste)
2 cobs of corn- cooked and grilled
2 limes ( zest and juice)
1/2 cup of Quinoa ( cooked in Orange Juice)


Other:

6 filet's of tilapia or any white fish
3 Tbsp Coconut
white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
Whole wheat wraps
Feta Cheese
Lettuce wraps.



1. Put fish on Tin foil and sprinkle coconut and salt and pepper on top. Splash with white wine.  Grill until cooked.

2. Cook corn on the cob as you usually do  and then grill for flavour at the same time.

3. Chop and Mix all the Salsa ingredients.

4. Put a slice of fish, and salsa with feta cheese in your wrap and enjoy!  I used lettuce wraps tonight as I love them, they give me the crunch I want and no carbs!  LOVE/LOVE!

I can't see this dish being any more than 300 calories for 2 taco's!  Amazing, yet so full of filling protein and flavour!



I am totally NOT a food photographer, these looks awful, but we had 6 different workmen in our home, I had a long day, I was starving and wanted to EAT. Trust me. Just MAKE IT! It was very good!

A little friendly family CORE competition!

A little SPINNING humour!

Huge Protein Week

What I know about Protein.

You need to have enough of it in your body to keep and build muscle. You want to have lots of it , as when you work out, your body will burn off the most recent  carbs first, then head to muscle if you don't have enough protein inside of you.  IF you do have enough, then the fat cells get used as fuel! YAY!    Got to love that.

However you need to have a little bit of healthy fat with your protein for it to be properly absorbed.  ( good fats? olive oil, avocado, nuts, fish)

Hence why fish is soo darn good for you!

You need at least 1 gm of protein per 1 kg of your body weight per day.  When you add that up, that is a lot. So if you are 120 lbs you should eat 50 grams of protein a day. More if you are building muscle.

There is a lot more I could say about the amino acids, and breakdown, etc. But basically this is the basics of what we need to know.

So how do you add more protein into your diet?  Read Oxygen magazine as they have some amazing recipes.  I will share a few.





Click to enlarge



mine, done on the BBQ with lemon green beans and I ALWAYS have broccoli on my week-day plates!

So good! It was a hit in this house and I didn't even miss the carbs.  I used spicy turkey sausage out of the casing instead of the turkey meat, and used my home-made tomato sauce.

I tend to start my day with egg whites and whole grain toast. Work-out, then I add the hot water to my home-made protein oatmeal snacks that I make and have shown previously on my blog. 

Home for a late lunch around 2pm. Have something like this.

Lettuce " taco" wraps filled with black bean and lean ground turkey meat loaf that I make and freeze.

Basically a meat loaf, but use extra lean ground turkey, black beans rinses, lots of herbs and spices of your choice, shredded zucchini , carrots and chopped mushrooms.  Bake, slice and freeze into individual servings for quick meals.

Beach Body Abs Bonus

Oxygen Women's Fitness | Training | Beach Body Abs Bonus

I would add some bicycle crunches, Russian twists and ball passes over-head to this as well.  Repeat 4 times daily.

Burn more Calories!? Don't forget your large muscles!

Your LEGS!  Quads, hamstrings, and Glutes!

by Stew Smith


Burn More Calories with Cardio Exercise Mixed with Legs

How do I run, keep burning calories, and not get fat during the winter months? I know that running is difficult outside due to snow and ice, and staying inside and eating more food is becoming a dangerous habit for many people, but there are options.

As far as getting out of the cold, treadmills, stationary bikes and indoor pools are a big favorite, not only during the winter but year round. Doing 15-30 minutes a day on these indoor machines will keep you in fighting shape during the winter months. But, if you do not have access to am indoor training facility, try jumping rope or jumping jacks to get the heart pumping, and then mix the calisthenics leg exercises listed below for a challenging cardio and resistance training workout.

Exercising your legs is very often overlooked by even the most avid weight lifters and exercisers. Many people simply cannot and should not perform some of the more basic leg exercises like squats and lunges due to knee and lower back injuries. But, that does not mean you have to neglect the pillars of our bodies' foundation. Doing leg workouts not only make your legs stronger and able to support your body better, but you will actually burn more calories in your workouts by incorporating a leg routine.

Since your lower body has the biggest muscles in your body, by exercising the thighs, hamstrings, calves, lower back and glutes (rump), you can actually kick-start your metabolism and burn more calories with the following quick, but challenging leg workouts. You will find that leg workouts also have a cardiovascular element to them. Once again, this is because these muscles require so much more blood, so the heart will beat more to supply new blood to the lower body.

The Exercises



Squats

Keep your feet shoulder width apart. Drop your butt back as though sitting in a chair. Concentrate on squeezing your glutes in your upward motion. Keep your heels solid on the ground. Grab some dumbbells to make it more challenging and only do a half squat to place less strain on your knees. An alternate exercise for squats is the leg extension machine.

The Lunge

The lunge is a great leg exercise to develop shape and flexibility. Keep your chest up straight and your stomach tight. Take a long step forward and drop your back knee toward the ground but keep the front shin vertical - do not over extend. Want to make it more of a challenge? Grab some dumbbells. Make it easier on your knees by only going down half way. An alternate exercise for lunges is the leg curl machine. (If you have injured knees - you may want to skip this one.)

These two exercises work the largest muscles of the body - the butt and the legs. By exercising these muscles you will speed up your metabolism and therefore burn more calories throughout the day.

The Workout:

- Warmup bike, walk or run for 5:00

- Stretch

Repeat the following three times:

- Squats- 20 reps

- Lunges - 10 reps/leg

- Bike, jog or walk - 5:00

You will find leg workouts to be challenging and you may be quite sore the following day. Do not neglect your post-exercise stretch routine and you will be much less sore. Do legs 2-3 times a week and rest your legs 2-3 days before another leg workout. On days that you do not do leg calisthenics, try to bike, walk, or run, and stretch well in order to break up the soreness of the leg workout the day before.

P.S. - You will burn at least 200% more calories by adding leg PT to your walk or jog. To see how much body fat is on your frame check out the body fat calculator using the same criteria as the Navy Circumference Test.

Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. If you are interested in starting a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle - check out the Military.com Fitness eBook store and the Stew Smith article archive at Military.com. To contact Stew with your comments and questions, e-mail him at stew@stewsmith.com.

This week's Bootcamp Class

This is what I have put together for this week's Boot Camp class that I teach on Monday nights at our local Y.

I have a great group of dedicated people that continue to come each week. I love it as we have a small class. We only take 10 people, so the ratio is 5:1 for students/instructor.  My friend Toni helps with the class too. We work great together. She is so much fun and high energy!

We set up 10 circuits around the room. We demonstrate how to do each one.   Start with a warm-up, then we start!

Each circuit is timed for 20 seconds, of 100% effort, all out. Followed by 10 seconds of rest to get to the next station.   After one complete round is done, they get 1 minute of rest/water.  Then we repeat, for a total of 4 rounds.  Followed by cool-down and stretching.

I mix it up weekly...they never know what they might be doing.....we are able to help with proper form, encouragement to go harder, push them to their max. It's a lot of fun, and all over in 30 minutes!

LOVE IT!  SO I am off to do it again this morning in my home gym, because I NEVER make them do anything that I haven't tried myself.  I am in pain right there with them!  Last week was a serious ARM and CHEST killer, so this week, I have focused more on Cardio and Legs.

Give it a try!

20 Minute Work-out with Maximum Results

This workout is a 20-minute workout that will take you to your maximum physical effort as well as your maximum heart rate. The object of this workout is not to rest in between exercises. You will see that one minute of a particular exercise will burn out the targeted muscle group as well as increase your heart rate to a fat and sugar burning zone. Try the 20 minute workout below - if it is not challenging enough for you try it again, totaling only 40 minutes of your time in the weight room.




20 Minutes Circuit Workout by Stew Smith







(*choose light weights for max reps)






1) Bench press* or pushups - max in 1:00


2) Squats - max in 1:00


3) Pullups or pulldowns - 1:00


4) Bike or jog - 3:00


5) Military press* - 1:00


6) Lunges - 1:00 each leg


7) Bicep curls - 1:00


8) Bike or jog - 3:00


9) Tricep extensions.- 1:00


10) Leg ext - 1:00 (requires leg machines - or repeat squats with weights)


11) Leg curls - 1:00 (requires leg machines - or repeat lunges with weights)


12) Situps - 2:00


13) Crunches - 2:00


14) Stretch






There is an unlimited number of ways to organize a circuit workout. The above workout is organized with upper body, lower body and cardiovascular exercises. By simply doing the above upper body and lower body exercises in such a way, you will be able to rest your upper body muscles while you workout your lower body muscles, but you will never rest your heart. This is how you make the circuit workout challenging to your cardiovascular system as well as your major muscle groups. Studies have shown that mixing a resistance training regimen with a cardiovascular element will increase your metabolism, therefore burning fat and building muscle. The result is a decrease in body fat percentage.




So, if you are looking to lose inches and body fat, workouts like this coupled with 4-5 smaller meals and 3-4 quarts of water everyday will help you achieve your goal. The best thing about this diet program is that you do not need a single dietary supplement - just good old fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and other lean meats. The key is to burn more calories than you take in and this workout will help you with that - promise


Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. If you are interested in starting a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle - check out the Military.com

Try adding this to your day!

Another great little work-out move to add to your day!

Work your entire body in a few simple moves. NO equipment needed. I will be adding this move to a few routines for sure!