Step by Step

I am currently reading a book called The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. I am only a few chapters in and am loving this book (and I rarely just pick up a book and read it). This quote really stood out to me and can be applied to any aspect of our lives whether it is fitness, nutrition, self-improvement, spiritual growth, finances, relationships, parenting, etc. Think about it!

November Challenge Group

So excited for Healthy Living Fitness 90 day challenge. Head on over to Facebook Like Page and join to find out more. Don't let the holiday food take you over. Start the New Year well on your way to being fit and healthy. Only a few spots left so check it out.

Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Chipotle Black Bean and Corn Salad

Earlier today I found a recipe from Alaska From Scratch that looked amazing and not only that, we already had all the ingredients at home. My pictures aren't nearly as good but I basically followed the recipe but then added diced up chicken. It was so delicious. The lime juice and adobo sauce offset the sweet potato to perfection. (Side note: I used to think that sweet potatoes were white and yams were orange but I found out that there are some sweet potatoes that look like yams. Costco had an informative insert in the bag of sweet potatoes explaining all this.) Now the question is: How do we know if the stores are selling yams or sweet potatoes? I have had yams but the sign said sweet potatoes. 

It isn't all about weight!!!

Going to try these for the kids lunches

I am tired (and I am sure my kids are too) of the same old sandwiches for lunch. I found these and am going to try them. Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Eat Right and Eat More!

One of the hardest things for me isn't only to eat right, but to eat enough of the right things. So many people start eating clean and feel that they are starving all the time. The thing is that clean foods have fewer calories for the most part and you can eat more of them. I struggle to eat enough!

"Who Are You?"

This past weekend my family completed our first Spartan race. Before our race and the kids race the announcer would ask, "Who are you?" and athletes would yell, "I AM A SPARTAN!" and this was repeated over and over again, louder each time. The definition of a spartan is one who is "courageous in the face of pain, danger, or adversity" and one who is "self-disciplined." Working out, eating healthy, and trying to reach health and fitness goals involves all of this. You may feel pain, you may be sore, you may be scared to try something new, you may feel beaten, you may feel like you will never make it, you may struggle with what foods to eat or not to eat, and you will have your ups and downs. Just like the Spartan Race, you will be challenged physically, emotionally, and psychologically; in the end, you will realize that you kept going and finished what you set out to do. You overcame pain, danger, and adversity through self-discipline. IT IS ALL WORTH IT!  Look at the expressions on my kids' faces when they finished. And then ask yourself . . . "Who are you?"

PiYo: Combining Pilates and Yoga . . .Can it get any better than that?!

Do you have sore knees that can't handle all the high impact workouts? PiYo is a new low-impact but high intensity workout that doesn't involve all the jumping that can bother sore or injured knees. "Chalene Johnson took the very best Pilates- and yoga-inspired moves and cranked up the speed to give you a full-throttle cardio, strength, and flexibility training--all at once. PiYo packs it ALL into each workout so you can build lean muscle mass--as you're burning crazy calories." If you haven't experienced Pilates or Yoga before, you will be amazed at the results you will get. And Beachbody is offering the most amazing deal right now: You get PiYo and a month of Shakeology for $140.


Buy PiYo Challenge Pack NOW

Sweet Chili Caribbean Jerk Whole Wheat Pizza

My husband and I love to cook and find new recipes to try and then change them to have more options to our meal planning. We double the chicken recipe and have a Caribbean Jerk Sweet Potato for the following night. Love getting two meals out of one recipe:) We have made this pizza before but last night we perfected it and even made it with a whole wheat crust. It does have a little spice to it so you may want to adjust how much of the scotch bonnet or habanero pepper if you don't like a lot of heat. Some of the best pizza we have had.

We make jerked chicken from Guy Fieri's recipe on Food Network. We don't always grill it. It can be fried in a pan as well.

Jerked Chicken      

-Food Network/Guy Fieri-

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp	Ground Nutmeg	¼ cup	Fresh Thyme Sprigs
1 Tbsp	Ground Allspice	1	Lime, juiced
1 Tbsp	Cinnamon Stick	3	Garlic Cloves
1	Red Onion, chopped	1	Scotch Bonnet Pepper or Habanero Pepper
3	Green Onions, chopped	1 (2-inch)	Fresh Ginger, peeled
¼ cup	Extra Virgin Olive Oil	To taste	Salt
1 cup	Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice	To taste	Pepper
¼ cup	Soy Sauce	2 lbs	Boneless Chicken, diced into 1 ½ inch pieces

Directions:

1.   In food processor, combine all ingredients except chicken. Puree until smooth.

2.   Add all but ¼ cup of the mixture in a 1 gallon sealable bag.

3.   Add chicken to bag and marinate in refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

4.   Heat grill to medium-high. Skewer chicken pieces and grill on one side for about five minutes. Flip and grill other side until done and grill marks appear.

5.   Serve with unused sauce for dipping.

Then we make a whole wheat pizza dough recipe. Could use any one that you like but this is an easy one we use:

Pizza Dough 

Ingredients:   Makes 4 Pizzas

3 C	Hot tap water
2 Tbsp	Honey
6-8 C	Whole wheat or Unbleached White Flour (or half and half)
1 Tbsp	Instant Yeast
1 Tbsp	Real Salt
1 Tbsp	Kitchen Resource Dough Enhancer (optional)

Directions:

1.  Put water, honey and 3 cups of flour in Mixer bowl. Mix until paste consistency.

2.  Add yeast and salt. 

3.  Add additional flour quickly 1 cup at a time only until mixture pulls away from sides of bowl.  You may not need to add entire amount of flour or you may need to add a bit more. 

4.  If using all white flour, knead 5 minutes. (If half white, half wheat, knead 8 minutes.  If all wheat knead for 10 minutes).

5.  Add dough enhancer last 2 minutes of kneading. (I don't add this!)

6.  Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 500F

7.  Roll crusts to desired shapes and sizes. Add toppings and bake on stone for 7 minutes.

Sweet Chili Caribbean Jerk Whole Wheat Pizza

Ingredients:

       Sweet Chili Sauce

       Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

       Thai basil

       Pineapple

       Diced Red Pepper
       Green onions

       Jerked Chicken

Directions: Once you have your pizza dough rolled out, then add the above ingredients to your taste, using the sweet chili sauce instead of regular pizza sauce and bake. Depending on your oven you may have to reduce temperature and cook longer. I generally have it at 450 degree and cook about 10-12 minutes.

Create YOUR own LIFESTYLE!!!

I am not a personal trainer or a doctor. I am simply a person, like you, who wants to live a healthy lifestyle and feel good when I wake up in the morning. I want to be able to run and play with my kids. I want to have the energy I need to do what I need to do everyday. I was tired of being tired and changed it.

Figure out what your goal is. What lifestyle do you want to live and how are you going to get there?  I choose a cheat meal (just not quite as healthy as usual, but no burger and fries) once a week. I know that if I can be healthy all week I will get that cheat meal. Find your balance. Some people choose not to have a cheat meal because then they will fall away from their goals. Create a lifestyle that YOU can live with. Identify unhealthy habits and make them healthy. Get creative with your nutrition and exercise. Find a workout that you enjoy and look forward to. CREATE your own personalized LIFESTYLE!

It's not too late to get in!!!

Join us for a 90 Day Challenge Group! Make change, break bad habits, and feel healthy. Great tips, recipes, and motivation to keep pushing hard. Be held accountable to workout and eat healthy with others who share similar goals.

Start Simple!!!

If you aren't happy with how you feel, how you look, or your level of activity then stop complaining and/or making excuses and fix it. Start with small simple changes and go from there. Whether you add in 15 minutes of exercise, cut out soda, or just start taking walks . . . . MAKE IT HAPPEN and BE CONSISTENT!!!

Day 2 of Couple Challenge

For those of you who are interested or are already doing the couple challenge, we are on day 2 and hope everyone is getting their exercise in and eating healthy. On January 1st we will also figure the total inches and weight lost overall by everyone doing the challenge. If you haven't started it isn't too late. Just let us know and we will get you going. There is no cost, but a great motivation to work hard. Keep checking for ideas and updates.

Two Days Left

Two days before final weigh in. We are excited to see all of your amazing results. Please remember that this is not the end, but the beginning. Do not slack off on exercise or diet because it is a lot easier to break habits than it is to make them and much easier to put the weight back on. If any of you haven't seen the results you have wanted (and you have been doing the work) let us know. Email us so we modify your workout or diet or whatever needs to be done. See you Tuesday.

Don't Get Discouraged

Life changes don't happen over night. As we embark on a new 6 weeks of classes I have to remind everyone that these changes won't happen in a few hours days or sometimes even weeks, but they will happen. Don't lose sight of the goal. This 6 week class is only the beginning, this is just to get you on your way. You will probably see the biggest results the last 3 weeks because your body is finally getting in the "mode" of exercising and it is starting to respond accordingly.

If you keep the end in mind it will be much easier on you. Keep fighting one more day and if you can make it just 1 more day then you will reach the end and your results will be noticeable.

Let's do it better this time !!!!

We just successfully ended our first class for weight loss and fitness. We had 2 winners. One person lost 12 pounds and one lost 15 1/2 inches. That is a BIG loss in 6 weeks, and they are not done. They signed up for our next class. They plan on winning again too. With this next class we are going to have more people than we did in the first one. We will expect more out of our class and we are going to push the students even harder. We are going to require a greater commitment because we want to see even BIGGER numbers this time.

Our next class starts tomorrow night (7/14) and we plan on having even bigger losses and we are expecting a real running for the prize this time.

Congratulations to our students and Welcome to a HEALTHIER LIFE! Good Luck!!!

Answer to your question......

FROM THIS--------->

Thank you Caryn (not KAREN) for asking this question and here is my answer (except Alisha stole my thunder). Sorry it took me so long, you know finals and stuff.

She is right though, targeting abdominal fat alone is very difficult. I do know one way to target abdominal fat but it involves anesthesia and a knife.
Your body puts fat where IT wants it NOT where you want it. The abdomen, thighs, hips, and buttock are the best place for it to store fat because that is the easiest place for your body to carry it. Meaning it takes less energy to carry fat in those areas than it does other places.

On the opposite side of the coin, the body will eliminate fat in the areas that IT wants to as well. So if you expel energy and your body burns fat it will burn it from the place that it wants to.

Are you wasting your time doing abs and should you spend that time doing cardio?
NO -

All those crunches and Turbo Jam Abs that you are doing are going to allow your body to burn fat, but maybe not in the areas that you are targeting that day. Chalene is right when she says "Muscle burns fat" (kind of). Basically building muscle burns fat. The energy that is needed to build muscle can come from fat storage in our body. Strength training is very important to weight loss. It allows you to burn fat long after you are done, because of the process your body is going through to rebuild the muscles. So don't quit targeting those areas, targeting is good and it allows your body to pull energy from your whole body and keep fighting after you are done exercising.

However, I do believe in the principle of cross training. Your body can get used to one exercise and if you do that same one over and over again you WILL plateau in your weight loss and your fat blasting. If you change up your routine it will force your body to use different fat storage from different areas (not targeting but incorporating the whole body).

IF you lose that weight through cardio and strengthening your arms and legs you will never have a tight waist. You have to strengthen the core and tighten the abs. Again, on the flip side, you can crunch and crunch and crunch and never see your abs unless you have cardio, and a healthy diet.


Basically, If you do you not get your heart rate up. The fat is going to stay around.

I hope this answers your question if not let me know and I will try again.

Thank you all for reading, please click white button on the side to "FOLLOW" this blog.
TO THIS--------------->

Is Obesity GENETIC? (Who do you get to blame?)

I know I am going to ruffle feathers with this post and you know I am TOTALLY ok with that. As a physician I talk to people about their weight everyday and I often hear "that it is just the way that I am", or "My mom and dad are obese, my brothers and sisters are obese so there is nothing I can do it is genetic in my family." Those are just excuses.

I am here to give my opinion about the subject as well as discuss some legitimate research about this topic. If you are one of these people using this excuse as a crutch then this post will probably make you angry (but maybe for good reason).

Here it is......IS OBESITY GENETIC?...........in my opinion .............. NO!!!!

Now for the literature I have read. I read one article that said that adopted people grow up to have similar body types as their BIOLOGICAL parents. So that would suggest that it is genetic right? Well there is no GENE that has been identified as an Obesity gene so the rationale of the article as well as what I have thought about that is that there are some things that are genetic. Addictions, cravings, depression, and other things that can lead someone to overeat or not exercise.

According to the CDC (center for disease control)

"However genes do not always predict future health. Genes and behavior may both be needed for a person to be overweight. In some cases multiple genes may increase one’s susceptibility for obesity and require outside factors; such abundant food supply or little physical activity."

So genes lead us to having condition that restrict our physical activity or require a higher caloric intake but they are not a direct lead to obesity. The direct link has not been found and so as it sits now the answer by the authorities is that they don't know and that it might have an effect but they don't know how.

Here is my opinion on the subject. I believe that there is a "hereditary" component to obesity but not a genetic one. I know they are basically the same thing. But what I mean in this situation by "hereditary" is something passed down from parent to child. And here is my list of things that may be passed down from parent to child that aids in this epidemic.

1) Disinterest in exercise
2) Poor eating habits
3) Creating excuses for behavior
4) Love for candy, sweets, or other unhealthy foods.
etc. etc. etc.

Those are the kinds of things that we get from our parents that can lead to this pandemic. I am happy to say that I am proud of the way that my parents raised me. My mom ALWAYS had a balanced meal for me to eat. They taught me the importance of moderation in all things and when it is ok to eat NACHOS (BYU football games). I was never pushed into exercise as a child but because of the example of my father and older brother they taught me that playing basketball outside was fun and also made us feel good (besides the broken wrists that may or may not have happend, right Derek?). I am proud of my family and would not be in the health, profession, or lifestyle without their help. I am happy to say that our family genes are great we have very little hereditary health issues so it makes me run out of excuses quickly.

Thanks Mom and Dad.

Todays Tip - Motivation

Last night in our class we discussed motivation. As we have heard from the people in our class as well as people posting replies on our blog, MOTIVATION seems to be the biggest problem. So I found a couple of articles that I thought helped one was dealing with weight loss and diet, and one was dealing with exercise. I think they are both good and give great ideas of ways to deal with the getting started part of fitness.

Health is not 1 month or a 2 month commitment. This is a life change, and with that commitment comes MANY MANY benefits. I am amazed at some of the things I have seen change in my life because of my commitment to my health.

I know it is easier to "wait" or "do it later". But I am sad to tell you if you wait very much longer, there will not be a "LATER", but there will be a "to late". I know other people who use the excuse "I don't have any health problems" or "I am not overweight". My response to that is SO WHAT? Healthy lifestyle and fitness is not only for the bikini wearing models. It is for everyone and should be thought of as something just as important as breathing.

It is like finding God in your life. Before you understood the importance of Him what did you say "I don't need that; I am doing just fine", But now that you have Him in your life, can you really imagine living without Him? Health and Fitness feel the same way, it is hard at first (like any good change), but once you get started it is amazing how you feel and it just motivates you even more. You would be surprised how many people i have seen ELIMINATE certain health problems just with healthier eating and exercise.

Check out these two articles for good tips on how to get started the SMART WAY.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss/HQ01625/METHOD=print

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-motivation-tips?print=true

Please leave comments to let me know what you think. Or feel free to ask questions about anything that you want me to research or find out for you. Also feel free to contact me to ask anything more directly.