You’re Tough Enough!

So far we have 3 — maybe 4 — peo­ple com­mit­ted to the BC4C Tough Mud­der team. Come on, tough guys (and gals)! We’re all tough enough for any­thing. And, just to assuage any fears, the point of the race is to get through it as a team, with every­one help­ing every­one else. This is not a speed race… it’s a “let’s all get through this together” race. So, now, who else is in?

Join the BC4C team dur­ing the registration:

Team name: BC4C
Pass­word: bewelldogood

SIGN UP NOW!

We’re cur­rently sched­uled for Sun­day at 11:20, but we could switch to Sat­ur­day if we get some more Mud­ders and the major­ity rules.

There’s also some BC4C inter­est in the Spar­tan race. Check it out and let’s see if we can get a BC4C Spar­tan team together!

And, of course, we have a BC4C team form­ing for the Pub­lix Geor­gia Marathon/Half. The team name is Boot Camp 4a Cause. You do not need a pass­word to join.

SIGN UP NOW!

Recipe of the Week: Chunky Chicken Soup

For gen­er­a­tions, chicken soup has been a rem­edy of choice for moth­ers with sick chil­dren. The lean pro­tein and nutrient-rich veg­eta­bles help boost your strength to fight off a cold. But this power com­bi­na­tion of veg­eta­bles, whole grains and health-enhancing herbs can be enjoyed any time. Our recipe calls for buck­wheat, a whole grain that’s a good source of fiber and mag­ne­sium. It’s also gluten-free and is not a mem­ber of the wheat fam­ily so it is appro­pri­ate for those with celiac disease.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tsp. canola oil
• 1/3 cup whole buckwheat
• 1 cup water
• 1 large car­rot, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
• 1 large cel­ery rib, cut cross­wise into 1/2-inch slices
• 3/4 cup frozen pearl onions, or fresh chopped onion
• 4 cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided*
• 2 cups roasted chicken breast, in bite-size pieces
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

*To reduce sodium con­tent to 80 mg per serv­ing, use low-sodium chicken broth.

PREPARATION

1. Heat oil to medium-high heat in medium-size saucepan. Add buck­wheat, stir­ring con­stantly, until grains are fra­grant, about 2 min­utes. Off heat, pour in water, tak­ing care, as liq­uid will spat­ter. Return pan to stove, reduce heat to sim­mer, and cook, cov­ered, until buck­wheat is al dente, about 15 min­utes. Set cov­ered pan aside.
2. Place car­rots, cel­ery and onions in large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup broth, cover and sim­mer over medium-high heat until veg­eta­bles are crisp-tender, 10 min­utes. Add remain­ing broth, chicken and cooked buck­wheat. Add salt and pep­per to taste.
3. When soup is hot, divide among four wide, shal­low bowls. Gar­nish each bowl with 1 table­spoon pars­ley, and serve.

Note: If desired, in place of roasted chicken, gen­tly sim­mer a 3/4-pound skin­less and bone­less chicken breast in broth in large saucepan. When it is white in the cen­ter, about l5 min­utes, set chicken breast aside. When chicken is cool enough to han­dle, shred into bite-size pieces. Clean out pot and pro­ceed, cook­ing veg­eta­bles and com­plet­ing soup as above.

NUTRITIONAL INFO
Makes 4 servings

Per serv­ing: 210 calo­ries, 5 g total fat (1 g sat­u­rated fat), 15 g car­bo­hy­drate, 25 g pro­tein, 3 g dietary fiber, 530 mg sodium.

First lady targets world record for jumping jacks

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama wants to jump into the Guin­ness World Records book next week by help­ing break the title for the most peo­ple doing jump­ing jacks in a 24-hour period.

The first lady will lead hun­dreds of local chil­dren in doing one minute of jump­ing jacks on the South Lawn on Tuesday.

The event will be reviewed by an offi­cial from Guin­ness World Records and will sig­nal the begin­ning of a 24-hour challenge.

To break the record, more than 20,000 peo­ple around the world will need to do jump­ing jacks for a minute.

National Geo­graphic Kids is lead­ing the effort to break the record.

Let’s do a minute of jump­ing jacks dur­ing boot camp on Tues­day in honor of this goal!

Source: MSNBC

How to Burn Your Holiday Belly

It’s no secret our hol­i­day tra­di­tions cause weight gain. The Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion reports most peo­ple gain five to 10 pounds between Thanks­giv­ing and New Year. Overindul­gence in alco­hol, desserts and tra­di­tional hol­i­day treats along with spend­ing more time eat­ing and less time exer­cis­ing may leave you with a lit­tle extra bulge in your belly.

If you are guilty of overeat­ing dur­ing the hol­i­days, here are some tips to get you back on track and burn off your hol­i­day belly.

1. Drink 80 oz. of water daily.

Drink­ing 80 oz. of water or more is one of the most impor­tant things you can do on a daily basis. It’s as nat­ural as you can get. There are no added calo­ries, or cho­les­terol, and none of those unhealthy addi­tives you find in other drinks.

Another ben­e­fit of drink­ing water is that it helps remove tox­ins from your body. It helps trans­port food from one part of your body’s diges­tive track all the way to the very end. Fur­ther­more, dehy­dra­tion can affect your metab­o­lism which can delay weight loss. Drink up.

2. Replace cof­fee with green tea.

Green tea can help boost your metab­o­lism and burn fat more quickly. It also con­tains caf­feine and antiox­i­dants. Green tea helps reg­u­late glu­cose, fight heart dis­ease, pre­vent can­cer, and reduce inflammation.

Another way green tea is good for burn­ing belly fat is because it is a nat­ural diuretic that helps reduce water weight from the body. This makes you look less bloated and helps clean out your sys­tem each time you drink.

3. Eat lots of fruits and veggies.

Fruits and veg­eta­bles are weight loss all-stars. Not only are they low in calo­ries and high in fiber, they con­tains antiox­i­dants that boost your health. It’s impor­tant to eat a wide vari­ety of col­or­ful fruits and veg­eta­bles every day to reap opti­mum health benefits.

4. Choose bet­ter carbohydrates.

Get rid of white sugar and processed car­bo­hy­drates and choose instead to eat whole grains. Good sources include: steel oats, brown rice, whole grains, yams, sweet pota­toes and legumes.

Eat car­bo­hy­drates after an intense work­out when your body is most recep­tive and will con­vert them to energy. Also include pro­tein and fats in your daily meals.

5. Stay active.

It can help you imme­di­ately feel bet­ter. Car­dio exer­cise can include brisk walk­ing, run­ning, bik­ing, danc­ing, or cross-country ski­ing. Doing car­dio four to five times a week with com­bi­na­tion of weight train­ing two to three times a week is a great way to burn body fat.

If you are not see­ing results, increase the inten­sity of your car­dio exer­cise. But give your­self time to see results. The key is to stay active.

We all overindulge from time to time but get­ting back on track is one of the best ways to deal with the stress and anx­i­ety that comes from overeating.

Start now. With each healthy choice you make, remem­ber your com­mit­ment to stay healthy and fit year-round while quickly burn­ing off your hol­i­day belly.

Source: Active​.com

Make it Work!

Time for New Year’s Res­o­lu­tions! Since you’re here, you prob­a­bly made some fitness-based res­o­lu­tions. We think that’s fan­tas­tic and we want to help you stick with them!

Here are some tips to help you stay on track:

1. Don’t rely on your level of moti­va­tion or emo­tions. Just do it!

EXPLANATION:

Action is gen­er­ally the pre­req­ui­site for moti­va­tion, not the other way around. If you think you need to wait for some inspi­ra­tion before you start your new exer­cise rou­tine and/or nutri­tional plan, you could be wait­ing for a long time.  Many sources sug­gest that new habits take a min­i­mum of three con­sis­tent weeks to form, and some­times longer.

2. Aim low to begin with.

EXPLANATION:

Many New Year’s res­o­lu­tions aim to change way too much, way too soon – and are soon com­pletely aban­doned due to unre­al­is­tic com­mit­ments and goals, as well as due to insuf­fi­cient ‘how-to’ infor­ma­tion. Instead of declar­ing that your goal is to lose 40 pounds, or to triple your strength – start with a tar­get that’s more rea­son­able, like los­ing 3 to 5 pounds in the first month, or per­haps lift­ing weights that are 10 to 20% heav­ier than nor­mal, then pro­ceed from there.

3. If you can’t resist temp­ta­tion, take it out of the kitchen!

EXPLANATION:

Even ath­letes are human beings, and are influ­enced by the five senses – touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight! Prac­ti­cal Fit­ness Tips rec­om­mends remov­ing all ‘bad temp­ta­tions’ from your home – or, if liv­ing with oth­ers, at least remov­ing as much as pos­si­ble from sight. This includes all junk foods, sug­ary snacks, choco­late, alco­hol, ice cream and other sim­i­lar items.

Obvi­ously, if you know in advance that you will be enter­tain­ing guests on a cer­tain evening, there is noth­ing wrong with pur­chas­ing a few items on that day – and a quan­tity suit­able for that evening only – no pur­chas­ing ‘Buy 3, Get 1 Free’ items! If you have noth­ing to ‘tempt’ you in the house in the first place, you can save your­self hun­dreds of calo­ries per week.

4. Don’t be a perfectionist.

EXPLANATION:

Don’t beat your­self up over the occa­sional slip – whether it involved miss­ing a few too many work­outs, or ‘giv­ing in’ to your diet on a Fri­day night while out with friends. An ‘all-or-nothing’ approach can be deter­mi­nan­tal, as life doesn’t gen­er­ally fol­low a con­sis­tent and pre­dictable path – includ­ing in the New Year. Expect to slip-up from time to time, and when it hap­pens, just get right back on track imme­di­ately after­wards. If it makes you feel bet­ter, if you ate or drank too much at a par­tic­u­lar meal (or entire week­end!), sim­ply increase the inten­sity level of exer­cise and con­sume slightly fewer calo­ries dur­ing the next few days – no prob­lem! Focus on your weekly calo­rie con­sump­tion, not just daily.

5. Tell your fam­ily, friends and colleagues.

EXPLANATION:

Speak­ing of ‘giv­ing in’ on a Fri­day night, one way to min­imise such occur­rences is to share your goals with every­body you know. A room­mate or fam­ily mem­ber will be less likely to offer you a slice of cake if they know you’re try­ing hard to reduce your calo­rie intake!

Find some­body with a sim­i­lar goal, and keep one another account­able by check­ing in with each other reg­u­larly to make sure you’re both on-track.

How do you plan to stick to your res­o­lu­tions? Share your advice here!

Source: Adapted from Prac­ti­cal Fit­ness Tips.