Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2009 Can Only Be Better
You're probably already sick of talking about New Years resolutions, and if you hadn't heard, most people don't stick with them. But it's an incredibly optimistic act, and if you have to, just put the cynacism aside for a moment.
Maybe it's cliche to pin your hopes of improvement on a symbolic rebirth and new beginning that's little more than the purchase of a new calendar. What else have you been pinning your hopes of improvement on? Probably not much.
Daily life moves so fast that it's difficult to take stock, but making New Years resolutions is a good time to think about your goals.
We at Energy Fitness know that at least one of your goals is probably related to health. If your resolution is to quit smoking, yes do that immediately! Maybe though, you want to lose weight, or just eat less fast food, or maybe you want to have more energy all day to get the things you need to done. Exercise and nutrition are the most important elements of getting healthy in 2009, and hopefully you will let the tips and advice in this blog help you out. If you need more one on one assistance, we've got that covered too.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thyme Toasted Nuts
Prep Time: 10 min. Cook Time: 14 min or until brown
Ingredients:
- 1 lb unsalted mixed nuts (pecan halves, almonds, add others such as walnuts & cashews if you want more variety)
- 2 tbsp dried thyme leaves (or use finely chopped fresh rosemary, the dried herb is too splintery and isn't pleasant to eat)
- 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar & 1 tbsp of brown sugar (or 3 tbsp. brown sugar)
- 1 tbsp. sugar (i used succanate baking sugar - it's organic)
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp. white pepper
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Preparation:
prehead oven to 375 degrees F. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven till they are light golden brown and fragrant, about 10 minutes.
In a large saucepan, combine the rosemary, cayenne, sugars, salt, white pepper and melted butter; cook and stir over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the toasted nuts; cook and stir constantly over medium heat for another few minutes to coat and glaze the nuts (or just pour the sauce over the nuts that have been placed in a large bowl & stir until all are coated. Spread over a baking sheet. Serve warm or cool.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Make Your Feet Feel Better With Reflexology
Happy Holidays Everyone!
Here is the video we promised in our clients' Christmas gifts. We hope the wooden foot roller will come in handy after a tough work out!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
St. Jude Marathon This Saturday
If you want to participate, well it's too late to sign up for the race. All the spaces available have been filled which means that 14,000 people have signed up!
Not only is St. Jude in an incredibly worthy cause, but signing up for a race like this (you might want to start with the 5K rather than the marathon!) is really great motivation for getting in shape.
For more information on the race, you can check out the following websites.
St. Jude Marathon
Memphis Runners Track Club
Friday, November 21, 2008
“How To Get Maximum Weight Loss & Fitness Results In Minimum Time”. 10 Tips To Looking And Feeling 10 Years Younger.
2. In the beginning your fitness plan should not be overly aggressive. If you try to do too much too fast, you may end up quitting altogether. If you’ve tried and failed doing it alone then I suggest you get a training partner or personal trainer who will help you sustain your motivation and accountability.
3. Eat regularly throughout the day. When you restrict your diet, your body instinctively thinks it’s being starved and shifts into a protective mode by storing fat. Your body’s energy expenditures will be fueled by your lean muscles causing your body fat to remain essentially the same while you lose vital fluids and muscle. Here’s a good rule of thumb: make sure that you are consistently “grazing” on health foods about every three hours. This includes at least half a gallon of fresh water every day.
4. Avoid Doing Cardio for more than 28 minutes or more at the same level of intensity. If your trying to store fat then do your long distance cardio, but if your trying to turn your body into a fat burning machine then you must do all out effort repeats of cardiovascular exercise. All out bouts should last anywhere from 10 seconds to 60 seconds with a total exercise time of 10 to 28 minute. Try this: 10 minutes of 20 seconds all out bouts with a recovery of only 10 seconds. It’s intense and so is the afterburn effect you that speeds up fat loss!
5. Don’t waste your time working small muscles with isolated movements. If you don’t enjoy doing resistance training, or are pressed for time, concentrate on working the largest muscle groups with compound resistance movements. Men should be concentrating on legs, chest and back. Women should concentrate more on their legs and back. Get a personal trainer to show you the best exercises including proper form, how many reps and sets to do.
6. Stretch or not stretch – this is debated and you must listen to your body to know how much is right for you. In general hold a stretch for 10-60 seconds and Never bounce, or aggressively push and pull a muscle beyond its natural range.
7. For a flatter mid-section of days gone by be sure to breathe properly while doing abdominal exercises. Pull your belly button in towards your spine during the exertion phase of executing an abdominal repetition.
8. Schedule exercise into your daily planner – and then stick to them. You wouldn’t miss a business meeting or client appointment, would you? So don’t miss your exercise appointment with yourself. Nothing is more important than your health. Nothing. Everything else will crumble around you if your health goes south.
9. Resistance Training reshapes your body – do 2 to 3 times per week, every week: Do you want shapelier legs, firm tummy, defined arms and strong back? Resistance training will give it to you. How about a firm perfectly shaped rear? Being physically fit affects every single aspect of your life: you sleep better, eat better, love better, overcome stress better, work better, communicate better and definitely look better!
10. Never Ever skip breakfast. Your breakfast should contain complete proteins and complex carbohydrates (if you’re trying to lose weight, you should eat the bulk of your complex carbohydrates at breakfast and lunch, and only have vegetable carbohydrates at dinner). A great breakfast is oatmeal (not the pre-packaged, pre-sweetened kind) with a little honey and banana and a protein drink. Or try scrambled egg whites with Healthy Choice turkey sausage.
Yours in good health,
Tonya Tittle, M.S. ACSM
Monday, November 17, 2008
A Couple of Good Links for All Our Clients
Here are a couple of good nutrition links. We are always telling our clients to get enough protein and that protein is especially important after their work out. That's why we carry the Prograde Post Work out Recovery Shake, and why we were very picky about what brand we would recommend to people. Several of our clients have seen really good results from using the shake consistently, and now we think one of the reasons is the type of protein that's in the shake: whey. So here's a couple of links through the National Dairy Council website about whey. Now, of course, the National Dairy Council has a vested interest in people using whey since it is a dairy product, however we have seen the effectiveness of whey protein ourselves, so there's some science behind the self-interest.
A Good Overview
An in-depth article
For a more practical everyday link, here's a great website for finding the nutritional information about whatever you're about to eat.
Calorie Counter
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Party Video
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Oatmeal Choco-Chip Squares
- 3/4 cup all purpose gluten-free flour blend
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda (aluminum free)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup earth balance butter, softened
- 3/4 cup succanate (it's a baking sugar)
- 3/4 cup packed organic brown sugar
- 1 egg (I like Eggland's Best)
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp vanilla, divided
- 3 cups uncooked thick oats (try to get from grain bins at whole foods or other fresh market)
- 1 cup sunspire or other dairy-free chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon of rice, soy, or almond milk
- 1 tbsp of xanthan gum (for binding properties)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookies sheets or baking pans; set aside. Combine flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Beat butter, succanate, and brown sugar in large bowel with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg, water and 2 teaspoons vanilla; beat well. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until blended. Stir in oats with spoon. Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets OR Spread out in a baking pan (pat down using your hands occasionally dipping yours hands in water to avoid getting stuck to the mix)
For cookies: bake 10 to 11 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let cookies stand 2 minutes on cookie sheets; transfer to wire racks or a plate to cool completely. Makes about 48 cookies.
For Squares: mix the choco-chips into the batter and bake at 375 for about 15 -20 minutes. Let squares cool for 10 to 20 minutes in baking pans; cut into squares and eat or store in freezer and thaw later for more moist oatmeal square.
Vegetarian Chili Recipe
Prep-time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Serves: 4
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
3 leeks, sliced
2 cloves garlic or 2 tbsp of dried garlic bits
1 tbsp all-purpose flour (or 1 tbs wheat-free, gluten free all-purpose flour)
1 and 1/4 cups vegetable broth
4 stick celery, chopped
1 red or green pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 thinly sliced squash
14-ounce can peed, chopped tomatoes (or can of crushed tomatoes with basil and spices)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp of chili pepper (or 1 tsp of taco dust that has chili powder, garlic, salt, paprika, cumin, white pepper, lime juice powder, black pepper, cayenne, and various herbs & spices)
1 tablespoon of maple syrup (grade B)
kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 - 14 ounce cans of black beans or your choice of beans (rinsed and drained)
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, leeks and cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the flour and cook gently for 1 minute, stirring.
2. Gradually add the broth, stirring, then add all the remaining ingredients except the beans, mix well.
3. Bring to the boil, stirring, then cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the beans and stir to mix. Return to the boil and simmer, uncovered, for a further 10 minute, stirring occasionally.
5. Serve by itself or on a bed of brown or wild rice.
Variations
- Use other vegetables of your choice such as corn, mushrooms, okra.
- Use other canned beans such as black-eyed peas and lima beans in place of the black beans
- Use other spices such as curry powder in place of the chili powder.
Nutritional Analysis (per serving)
Calories= 256
Fat = 4.3 g (of which saturates/bad fat = 0.5 g, monounsaturates/good fat = 1.1g, polyunsaturates/good fat = 1.6 g)
Protein = 13.8 g , Carbohydrates = 43.6 g, Dietary Fiber = 12.3 g (awesome), Sodium = .6g
Good source of fiber & vitamins A,C, & E
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Tonya's "Master Cleanse Journal" (The 5 day Lemonade Diet)
The diet consists of consuming 64-72 ounces per day of nothing but the following:
10 ounces water
2 tablespoons maple syrup (grade B - medium amber)
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or lime juice
1/8 teaspoon of caynenne pepper or as much as you can stand
At night any brand of detox tea or a salt-water flush
My client Johanna introduced me to this unique way of fasting as I have only done the 2 week pill system prior to this. Whole Foods has the book (about $7). At first the mere thought of going that long without food was scary and didn't seem possible or logical. The average person, not familiar with fasting, believes he/she will certainly die if he misses a meal. Your really suppose to follow it for 10 to 28 days. I chose to end mine at 5 days. I list details below stating why I ended it early.
Cleansing is basic for the elimination of every kind of disease. The purpose of cleansing , is to rid the body of the toxins. In the lemonade diet, the cayenne pepper acts to wash out the mucus loosened by the cleanse. The most important part of the cleanse or any fast is knowing how to come off of the fast, allowing the body to gradually adjust itself to handling solid food again. Tapering off the cleanse, with juices and broth for about three days is the reccommendation.
*The Master Cleanse" book states the following: "Basically, all of our diseases are created by ourselves because we have never taken the time to discover the true foods meant for man's use. We can create healthy bodies by using the right foods and eliminating highly toxic and mucus-forming foods.
Maple syrup = balanced form of positive & negative sugars. contains sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, copper, phosphorus, sulfur, & silicon, vitamin a, B1, B2, B6, C and Panthothenic Acid (B5).
Lemon - loosening & cleansing agent.
Tonya's Journal Specifics - The Down and Dirty !
Day 1 (monday)
Feel great ! Amazing mental clarity and time saved from not preparing meals was used to get lots of work done at work. Awesome workout of weights and running sprints. Maybe this will be easier than I thought.
Day 2 (tuesday)
Tired! Changed it up and had lime juice in my "blend" all day which was a mistake because I felt hungry most of the day. I hate being hungry. Maybe it's not going to be as easy as I thought after all. My eyes burned all day and my left eye twitched all day. No exercise because I was tired and had to take son to ear appointment. I was a little grumpy as you can imagine. Had detox tea in the pm.
Day 3 (wednesday)
detox tea woke me up at 3 am with my stomach grumbling that resulted in a few trips to the toilet, ended up translating spanish from my child's information tag on a toy he received from his grandfather just to pass the time because i knew that only one bathroom trip was not in my body's plan. Can you say - "Not Fun!" and for more information than you probably want to know - the cayenne pepper was not so much fun coming out the other end. Exercise was cross training of high intensity bursts of rowing, running, and cycling totalling 20 minutes.
Day 4 (thursday)
Felt good, a little tired. did swimming sprints today, felt decent but swallowing a little salt water made my stomach feel like i could have another round of bathroom visits later, so i stopped after completing 20 laps. Had detox tea in the pm.
Day 5 (friday)
Felt bad, low energy. didn't think straight. had a facial and massage (with lymph drainage work) which made me Feel Awesome to get rid of some toxins. Decided to end the diet by days end and had some fresh orange juice and a few grapes. no exercise. Lost a total of 7 pounds in 5 days and didn't want to lose any more and felt that 5 days was long enough since I eat far healthier than most people. My normal diet consists of consuming no alcohol, caffinee, dairy, pork, or red meat. I take a whole food based vitamin that we sell at Energy Fitness, do a Protein Shake everyday, take a superjuice supplement called Monavie, and eat about 35 egg whites a week, plus veggies, and I love some cereal.
Day 6 (saturday)
Felt good. Orange juice for breakfast, soup for brunch and lunch. Rice protein shake in afternoon and detox tea at night. Stomach uneasy and just in knots. Exercise: hooked up bike child trailer and rode from house to gym (about 27 minutes) slow. extremely weak and begin to question my sanity of riding to gym to lift weights. felt better after workout and felt awesome on ride back home.
Day 7 (sunday)
Felt good. OJ for breakfast and rice protein shake as well. After early morning church I ate a gluten free, wheat free chocolate snack bar. Went to whole foods to grocery shop. everything looked good but now on a quest not to add wheat, gluten, and dairy back in diet (have intolerance and sensitivity to it). O.K. so when I got to car the dairy free choco-chips were delicious in about 3 handfuls. GOOD! Yummy! later I had the following: soup, air-popped popcorn, cereal . Ate too much, was constipated and trying to push it out (sorry for those details) Oh, the pain in my adbomen,, Arrrghhh!!!!
Over the next several days I gradually added Salmon, rice and eggs to my diet.
By the next Friday (1 week later after ending the fast) I gained back my weight. This is good news for me as I need to gain a little and because I was spending lots of time in the bathroom when I was consuming dairy, wheat and gluten as I was never absorbing the nutrients to keep a healthy weight for my size. That's right now I am on a strict diet of no dairy because of my lactose intolerance. I started slacking for a bit in the dairy-free department and eating blue bell ice-cream and skinny cow ice-cream sandwiches. I also eliminated Wheat & Gluten because I realized I have a sensivitiy to it. It causes me numerous trips to the bathroom, like 8 to 10 trips every day with some days worse than others. In my research about Wheat & Gluten I realized that individuals that do not tolerate these ingredients and do not change their diets can end up with symptoms like infertility and later in life osteoporisis. I feel so much better now that I am following this diet (way of eating) and would reccommend that you look at your own diet and relate what you eat and how it makes you feel. Food is suppose to be fuel and give you energy not drag you down because of its overprocessed and non-nutrient dense properties.
OVERALL: I would do it again but probably for only 3 days or so!
If you have any questions or want my professional opinion if this is right for you just send me an e-mail or post a blog and I will answer any questions you might have. Buy the book, it explains the pros of detoxing far better than I could ever give it justice.
Tonya Tittle, M.S., ACSM
Owner/Director of Training
Energy Fitness
Monday, October 20, 2008
Energy Fitness Party Update
Like, no. First, you're being stereotypical. Second, you don't even know enough healthy food to be properly stereotypical. I am a firm believer that the ingredients for a good party are as follows:
1. Good guests
2. Good food
We've already got the good guest part covered (including people's spouses and families, we're looking at around 60 people already!) In order to disspell any fears about boring, healthy food sadly wilting in party trays, here's the menu for this Saturday.
Bean and orzo pasta salad
Celery with walnuts and dates salad
A special herb nut mix
Fennel & honey glazed carrot sticks (O.K. they are not raw, but Tonya couldn't resist having the sterotypical carrot sticks with a flare)
Home made salsa with some brand of healthy chips
Vegetarian Black Bean Chili
Fresh Fruit
Gluten and dairy free oatmeal cookies (it is possible to make a good, wheat and dairy free cookie, you'll be amazed)
Gluten & wheat free chocolate brownies (Tonya ate too many while preparing but managed to tear herself away to save some for the party! )
With all that to choose from, everyone should be able to find something that will make them happy and full. Any suggestions for a good dessert in the comment section would be appreciated!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
TOGA!! TOGA!!
We are doing this because it's been a while since we tried to get people together, and we want our clients to know that we do care about their lives outside the gym. Also, we have had quite a few new people join recently, and we'd like them to get to know some of the other great people that they might see around. And lastly, we want to prove we can have actual fun with people and not just yell at them to do eight more reps.
If you are a current client and did not receive an E-vite, please email energymemphis@gmail.com
Friday, October 3, 2008
Are Artificial Sweetners Safe? How Paranoid are You?
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Sweet and Sour: Sugary Truth
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
You're Not Getting Enough Protein
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Let's Make This a Regular Thing
Feel free to comment and send us questions. You've got experts here to help you with anything fitness related.
Thanks,
Energy Fitness Staff
Friday, August 15, 2008
Pictures of our Studio
Audio: Why can't I lost those last 10 pounds
http://salesbr.vo.llnwd.net/o2/WWN/wwn080714a.mp3