Everything is Connected

January’s moti­va­tional shirt is a reminder that every­thing we do in the world, through­out each day, is con­nected to every­thing else. Doing good cre­ates more good.

The back reads: every­thing is con­nected and fea­tures each of the causes we have sup­ported since March 2010:

• Pied­mont Park Conservancy
• Open Hand
• Camp Twin Lakes
• Every­body Wins
• Adopt a Golden Atlanta
• PATH Foun­da­tion
• Kate’s Club
• Get Grounded Foundation

To date, we’ve been able to donate $46,000 to these won­der­ful orga­ni­za­tions — thanks to you and your hard work!

Please post your results and improve­ments from today’s PT test — we want to hear your suc­cess stories!

See you next month — well, really later this month — on Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 31st.

Lack of ZZZs May Fuel Appetite

From Health­Day News

Get­ting too lit­tle sleep can make you hun­grier than nor­mal and may lead to weight gain, a small study suggests.

The team at Upp­sala Uni­ver­sity in Swe­den used func­tional MRI to observe the brains of 12 nor­mal weight males while they looked at images of food. This was done on two occa­sions — after a night of nor­mal sleep and after a night with­out sleep.

The results showed that a spe­cific brain region that plays a role in appetite shows more acti­va­tion in response to food images after a night with­out sleep than after a night of nor­mal sleep.

This sug­gests that poor sleep habits can affect a person’s risk of becom­ing over­weight in the long run, accord­ing to the study pub­lished online Jan. 18 in the Jour­nal of Clin­i­cal Endocrinol­ogy and Metabolism.

“After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of acti­va­tion in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat,” researcher Chris­t­ian Bene­dict said in a uni­ver­sity news release.

“Bear­ing in mind that insuf­fi­cient sleep is a grow­ing prob­lem in mod­ern soci­ety, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people’s risk to gain weight in the long run. It may there­fore be impor­tant to sleep about eight hours every night to main­tain a sta­ble and healthy body weight,” Bene­dict added.

Thank You, Friends!

Believe it or not, we have friends that joined us for a killer work­out this morn­ing… even with the fog and wet grass!

Master the Plank

From Active​.com

There is no exer­cise that works your abs more effec­tively and effi­ciently than the plank. All of your abdom­i­nal mus­cles (trans­verse, obliques and upper) have to work together to sta­bi­lize and sup­port your entire body weight.

It also engages your glutes, shoul­ders, lats, arms and legs. Almost every mus­cle in your body is being toned and tight­ened when you per­form this power move.

Get ready to flat­ten and tone your mid­sec­tion in as lit­tle as 60 sec­onds with all the vari­a­tions of this super pose.

Mas­ter the Plank

Before you try some of the more cre­ative poses it’s essen­tial the you mas­ter the basic pose.

Remem­ber:

1. Draw your navel towards your spine. Think about really pulling your belly up, no sagging!
2. Don’t over­arch your back. You want your whole body from the top of your head to your ankles to be in a straight line.
3. Engage your glutes. This will help you keep that straight line.
4. Keep those angles at a 90 degree angle. This helps your entire body stack correctly.
5. Don’t col­lapse into your shoul­ders or let them rise towards your ears. Pulling your abs tighter will help you direct the hold to your core instead of your neck and upper shoulders.
6. Keep your gaze about 6 inches in front of your face. This will keep your neck from straining.
7. Work up to a 60 sec­ond hold, focus on per­fect form. If you need to rest dur­ing your plank drop your knees down to the ground and then rise back up again into the pose.

Plank Vari­a­tions

Once you’ve mas­tered the basic plank, check out these fun and chal­leng­ing takes on the basic movement:

Oblique Plank: Mov­ing your legs while hold­ing the plank increases the work your lower abs and obliques have to do, plus it gets your heart rate up burn­ing a ton of calories.

Side Plank: Shift­ing the plank from one arm to two forces your obliques and lats to engage– say good­bye to love handles.

Moun­tain Climbers: Want to tone and tighten your abs while ramp­ing up your heart rate? Try this fast paced ab move as a car­dio inter­val between strength moves.

Exer­cise Ball Planks: Doing this bal­anc­ing exer­cise on an unsta­ble sur­face dra­mat­i­cally increases the chal­lenge to your core by forc­ing it to tighten and lift to sta­bi­lize your body.

Recipe of the Week: Muffin-Tin Crab Cakes

In honor of the Bal­ti­more Ravens mak­ing it to this Sunday’s AFC Cham­pi­onship Game, this week’s recipe fea­tures a Bal­ti­more clas­sic — crab cakes! Here’s a health­ier ver­sion for you to enjoy while watch­ing the Ravens take the wind out of the Patriot’s sails.

From Eat­ing Well:

We’ve taken the fry­ing and fuss out of crab cakes by shap­ing and bak­ing them in muf­fin tins. For the best taste, look for pas­teur­ized crab­meat in the refrig­er­a­tor case at your market’s fish counter, a bet­ter choice than canned vari­eties. Make It a Meal: Try these cakes with some tangy tar­tar sauce and coleslaw.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound crab­meat
• 2 cups fresh whole-wheat bread­crumbs, (see Tip)
• 1/2 red bell pep­per, minced
• 3 scal­lions, sliced
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 10 dashes hot sauce, such as Tabasco (Editor’s note: actu­ally, Old Bay sea­son­ing would be a bet­ter option here)
• 1/2 tea­spoon cel­ery salt
• 1/4 tea­spoon freshly ground pepper
• 6 lemon wedges, for garnish

PREPARATION

1. Pre­heat oven to 450°F. Gen­er­ously coat a 12-cup non­stick muf­fin pan with cook­ing spray.
2. Mix crab, bread­crumbs, bell pep­per, scal­lions, may­on­naise, eggs, egg white, hot sauce, cel­ery salt and pep­per in a large bowl until well com­bined. Divide mix­ture evenly among muf­fin cups. Bake until crispy and cooked through, 20 to 25 min­utes. Serve with lemon wedges.

TIPS & NOTES
Make Ahead Tip: Cover and refrig­er­ate for up to 2 days. Reheat in the microwave or serve cold.

Tip: To make fresh bread­crumbs: Trim crusts from firm sand­wich bread. Tear bread into pieces and process in a food proces­sor until a coarse crumb forms. One slice of bread makes about 1/3 cup crumbs.

NUTRITION INFO
Per serv­ing: 183 calo­ries; 5 g fat ( 1 g sat , 1 g mono ); 124 mg cho­les­terol; 18 g car­bo­hy­drates; 2 g added sug­ars; 21 g pro­tein; 6 g fiber; 574 mg sodium; 96 mg potassium.

Nutri­tion Bonus: Vit­a­min C (60% daily value), Zinc (20% dv), Cal­cium & Vit­a­min A (15% dv).