Log and Blog

Con­grat­u­la­tions! You’ve com­pleted Day 1 of March boot camp. Only 15 (or 25 depend­ing how you’re count­ing) days to go…

Make the most of this month by fol­low­ing two sim­ple rules:
Log and Blog!

Log: You’ve prob­a­bly heard it hun­dreds of times: write your goals down. But do you know why this step is so impor­tant? When you put pen to paper, you turn your thoughts into some­thing tan­gi­ble. That’s why we strongly encour­age you to track your diet and fit­ness goals by writ­ing them down. You will quickly see how the act of writ­ing these things down helps keep you moti­vated. Here’s a handy PDF that you can print to track your meals, goals and progress (print page 11 to track your meals)…

Down­load and print log book (PDF)

Blog: Have you ever heard that work­ing out in a group is one of the best ways to stay moti­vated? It’s true! Hav­ing peo­ple there along­side you to share in your expe­ri­ence and encour­age you along the way is often­times the dif­fer­ence between a suc­cess­ful exer­cise plan and one that tends to fiz­zle out over time. Share in your chal­lenges and your suc­cesses with your fel­low BC4Cers, and be sup­port­ive of their efforts as well by check­ing this blog after every workout.

You can also stay in touch with your fel­low BC4Cers via our Face­book page. Go ahead… go there and Like us today!

Read on to learn more about track­ing your meals…

We at BC4C would like you all to take a few moments and con­sider where and how you are get­ting the food you eat today.

• Do you plan to grab break­fast while hang­ing out your car window?
• Do you plan on grab­bing a hand­ful of M&M’s from your co-worker’s desk and call it a mid-morning snack?
• Do you plan to stand in line for lunch and order the fastest item that can be prepared?
• And do you plan to eat what ever is left on your child’s plate and con­sider your din­ner taken care of?

When we were in school we were forced to do a num­ber of sim­ple cal­cu­la­tions in order for us to add and sub­tract like sec­ond nature; the same prin­ci­pal applies for our nutri­tion journals.

Log­ging your meals — though tedious like math — will help you devote some time and energy to plan out where and what you eat. We ask you to eat five meals a day — not three meals and two snacks — because each time you eat you should use it as an oppor­tu­nity to get in the nutri­ents you need. The five meals you eat should be the vehi­cles for you to obtain your 9 serv­ings of grains, 4 serv­ings of veg­eta­bles, 3 serv­ings of fruit, 2 serv­ings of dairy, and 5 serv­ings of pro­tein the USDA rec­om­mends we eat every day.

While using a nutri­tion jour­nal, we hope that when you walk out the door every morn­ing, you do so with a plan of how you will get the nutri­ents you need to stay active and healthy — which will even­tu­ally become sec­ond nature.

Remem­ber, print page 11 to track your meals…

Down­load and print log book (PDF)

Tell us how you’re doing on Day 1. Leave a com­ment by click­ing the “Com­ments” link at the top of this post.

How to Choose the Best Meal Replacement Bar

Excerpted from Active​.com

We spend more than $1.5 bil­lion each year on food bars—carbohydrate, pro­tein, meal-replacement, even gender-specific. Is the dough being spent a huge waste, or worse, cre­at­ing huge waists?

We found a guide on Active​.com that out­lines dif­fer­ent bar types and how they can help, or hurt, you. Today we will focus on Meal Replace­ment bars.

Meal Replace­ment Bars

THE BASICS: These “mis­cel­la­neous” bars, whether it’s because of their carb count, pro­tein con­tent or mar­ket­ing, don’t fall into other categories.

PURPOSE: An easy way to get carbs, pro­tein, fat and calo­ries in one con­ve­nient pack­age. Some peo­ple use them as a prepack­aged meal and a way to pre­vent mind­less overeating.

LOOK FOR: Nat­ural ingre­di­ents. Bars made from grains and fruits do a bet­ter job of sim­u­lat­ing the nuances of a meal, includ­ing antiox­i­dants, vit­a­mins and minerals.

WATCH OUT FOR: Rely­ing too heav­ily on them. Bars are a great way to fit in a meal on the go, but real food offers more vari­ety, a wider range of nutri­ents and antiox­i­dants, and will tend to be more satiating.

Be sure to read our pre­vi­ous posts on Energy (Car­bo­hy­drate) and Recov­ery (Pro­tein) Bars!

Top Two Secrets of Boot Camp Success

Con­grat­u­la­tions! You’ve com­pleted Day 1 of August boot camp. Only 15 (or 29 depend­ing how you’re count­ing) days to go…

Make the most of this month by fol­low­ing two sim­ple rules:
Log and Blog!

Log: You’ve prob­a­bly heard it hun­dreds of times: write your goals down. But do you know why this step is so impor­tant? When you put pen to paper (or fin­gers to key­board) you turn your thoughts into some­thing tan­gi­ble. That’s why we strongly encour­age you to use your online Jour­nal. It’s part of the boot camp pro­gram because it works. Use your Jour­nal daily to keep track of your nutri­tional and fit­ness goals and accom­plish­ments. You will quickly see how the act of writ­ing these things down helps keep you motivated.

Blog: Have you ever heard that work­ing out in a group is one of the best ways to stay moti­vated? It’s true! Hav­ing peo­ple there along­side you to share in your expe­ri­ence and encour­age you along the way is often­times the dif­fer­ence between a suc­cess­ful exer­cise plan and one that tends to fiz­zle out over time. Share in your chal­lenges and your suc­cesses with your fel­low BC4Cers, and be sup­port­ive of their efforts as well by check­ing this blog after every workout.

You can also stay in touch with your fel­low BC4Cers via our Face­book page. Go ahead… go there and Like us today!

Read on to learn more about your Journals…

We at BC4C would like you all to take a few moments and con­sider where and how you are get­ting the food you eat today.

• Do you plan to grab break­fast while hang­ing out your car window?
• Do you plan on grab­bing a hand­ful of M&M’s from your co-worker’s desk and call it a mid-morning snack?
• Do you plan to stand in line for lunch and order the fastest item that can be prepared?
• And do you plan to eat what ever is left on your child’s plate and con­sider your din­ner taken care of?

When we were in school we were forced to do a num­ber of sim­ple cal­cu­la­tions in order for us to add and sub­tract like sec­ond nature; the same prin­ci­pal applies for our Journals.

We asked you to main­tain a Jour­nal this month to keep track of how and what you eat — forc­ing you to refo­cus on your nutrition.

Log­ging your meals — though tedious like math — will help you devote some time and energy to plan out where and what you eat. We ask you to eat five meals a day — not three meals and two snacks — because each time you eat you should use it as an oppor­tu­nity to get in the nutri­ents you need. The five meals you eat should be the vehi­cles for you to obtain your 9 serv­ings of grains, 4 serv­ings of veg­eta­bles, 3 serv­ings of fruit, 2 serv­ings of dairy, and 5 serv­ings of pro­tein the USDA rec­om­mends we eat every day.

While using a nutri­tion jour­nal, we hope that when you walk out the door every morn­ing, you do so with a plan of how you will get the nutri­ents you need to stay active and healthy — which will even­tu­ally become sec­ond nature.

Tell us how you’re doing on Day 1. Leave a com­ment by click­ing the “Com­ments” link at the top of this post.

How to Choose the Best Protein Bar

Thanks to the fun group of friends that joined us in the park this morn­ing! We had a nice break from the rain, but made up for it with sweat. We hope you enjoyed the work­out as much as we did… and we hope to see you out in the park with us next month! Sign up today →

Excerpted from Active​.com

We spend more than $1.5 bil­lion each year on food bars—carbohydrate, pro­tein, meal-replacement, even gender-specific. Is the dough being spent a huge waste, or worse, cre­at­ing huge waists?

We found a guide on Active​.com that out­lines dif­fer­ent bar types and how they can help, or hurt, you. Today we will focus on Recov­ery (pro­tein) bars.

Recov­ery Bar (AKA Protein)

THE BASICS: High in muscle-building pro­tein, these bars are mar­keted as much to the Gold’s Gym bench-pressing crowd as to pedal-pushing cyclists look­ing for post ride and post-training recovery.

PURPOSE: Helps usher carbs back into your mus­cles after a hard work­out, and pro­vides amino acids to rebuild your mus­cles. These sup­ple­ments work quickly so your body begins recov­ery immediately.

LOOK FOR: Qual­ity pro­tein in the form of whey, milk and soy. There is much debate over which is best, but many bars con­tain a blend, which may help deliver the ben­e­fits of each.

WATCH OUT FOR: Too many calories—some con­tain as many as 500. These bars are essen­tially a small meal—one can have as much pro­tein as 3 ounces of chicken and as many carbs as a cup of brown rice.

Tune in next week when we review Meal Replace­ment Bars!

Log and Blog!

Con­grat­u­la­tions! You’ve com­pleted Day 1 of June boot camp. Only 15 (or 24 depend­ing how you’re count­ing) days to go…

Make the most of this month by fol­low­ing two sim­ple rules:
Log and Blog!

Log: You’ve prob­a­bly heard it hun­dreds of times: write your goals down. But do you know why this step is so impor­tant? When you put pen to paper — or fin­gers to key­board — you turn your thoughts into some­thing tan­gi­ble. That’s why we strongly encour­age you to use your log books. It’s part of the boot camp pro­gram because it works. Use your log books daily to keep track of your nutri­tional and fit­ness goals and accom­plish­ments. You will quickly see how the act of writ­ing these things down helps keep you moti­vated. Now you can down­load and print just the pages you need (print page 11 to track your meals)…

Down­load and print log book (PDF)

Blog: Have you ever heard that work­ing out in a group is one of the best ways to stay moti­vated? It’s true! Hav­ing peo­ple there along­side you to share in your expe­ri­ence and encour­age you along the way is often­times the dif­fer­ence between a suc­cess­ful exer­cise plan and one that tends to fiz­zle out over time. Share in your chal­lenges and your suc­cesses with your fel­low BC4Cers, and be sup­port­ive of their efforts as well by check­ing this blog after every workout.

You can also stay in touch with your fel­low BC4Cers via our Face­book page. Go ahead… go there and Like us today!

Read on to learn more about your log books…

We at BC4C would like you all to take a few moments and con­sider where and how you are get­ting the food you eat today.

• Do you plan to grab break­fast while hang­ing out your car window?
• Do you plan on grab­bing a hand­ful of M&M’s from your co-worker’s desk and call it a mid-morning snack?
• Do you plan to stand in line for lunch and order the fastest item that can be prepared?
• And do you plan to eat what ever is left on your child’s plate and con­sider your din­ner taken care of?

When we were in school we were forced to do a num­ber of sim­ple cal­cu­la­tions in order for us to add and sub­tract like sec­ond nature; the same prin­ci­pal applies for our nutri­tion journals.

We asked you to main­tain a jour­nal this month to keep track of how and what you eat — forc­ing you to refo­cus on your nutrition.

Log­ging your meals — though tedious like math — will help you devote some time and energy to plan out where and what you eat. We ask you to eat five meals a day — not three meals and two snacks — because each time you eat you should use it as an oppor­tu­nity to get in the nutri­ents you need. The five meals you eat should be the vehi­cles for you to obtain your 9 serv­ings of grains, 4 serv­ings of veg­eta­bles, 3 serv­ings of fruit, 2 serv­ings of dairy, and 5 serv­ings of pro­tein the USDA rec­om­mends we eat every day.

While using a nutri­tion jour­nal, we hope that when you walk out the door every morn­ing, you do so with a plan of how you will get the nutri­ents you need to stay active and healthy — which will even­tu­ally become sec­ond nature.

Remem­ber, print page 11 to track your meals…

Down­load and print log book (PDF)

Tell us how you’re doing on Day 1. Leave a com­ment by click­ing the “Com­ments” link at the top of this post.