Not sure how to prepare one of these fruits?  Peel away the outside and scoop out the seeds in the middle.  Cut like you would your favorite melon, and squeeze on some fresh lime or lemon juice to taste.  Papaya is great in salsa or mixed with other fruits (melon and pineapple).

Papayas are highly nutritious, so drop some in that smoothie the next time you make one.  Just one cup of papaya contains 2.5 grams of fiber. This same cup contains 1.5 days worth of  vitamin C and 28% of one days worth of vitamin A. They have 14% of one day’s folate, and 6% of one days potassium and only 60 calories.

Check out Nutrition Action for more great nutrition health tips.

Where does this body-size-related self-image come from? Why is “thin in”? Male movie stars of many decades ago did not have the physiques they do today, with the exception of whichever actor was playing Tarzan at the time. A chiseled body on a man was an anomaly in the 1930’s, ‘40s, ‘50s and even ‘60s.

Nowadays, a man with the body of Humphrey Bogart won’t get too far on the big screen. As for the women, standards haven’t changed: Waist sizes in today’s starlets are just as small as they were many decades ago.

But we didn’t hear of body image disorders back then. Today, seems that’s all we hear about. What’s going on?

Well, the fame of fashion models may have something to do with it, plus all the magazines and Internet space devoted to “who’s wearing what” in the entertainment world, plus the skimpy and seductive outfits that today’s female recording artists wear. Self-worth for many young people—even not so young (a la Demi Moore), is tied to physical appearance.

So here’s that little secret:

Rather than focus on what your body looks like, focus on what it can do.

This small shift in thinking will produce magnificent results.

At age 12, Cheryl Haworth weighed 240 pounds. By age 17 and standing almost 5-10, Cheryl weighed just over 300 pounds. These measurements are enough to sink the spirit of any growing girl and demolish her with never-ending self-hatred.

However, Cheryl didn’t worry about what she looked like. Instead she focused on what her enormous body could do. She played softball, and this one day (when she was 12) led her to a gym where the sights and sounds of weight lifting mesmerized her. She was hooked. At age 17 she took the bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in weight lifting.

This doesn’t mean that the cure for any individual with a self-image problem is to perform weight lifting at Olympic level caliber. But you get the point. Set performance-related goals, such as:
• Run one mile outside nonstop
• Bench press 100 pounds (women); 175 pounds (men)
• Get through a step aerobics class without having to sit out and rest
• Run 12 mph on the treadmill for one minute—without holding on
• Master inline skating
• Complete an indoor climbing route rated at least 5.10
• Earn a green belt, then purple belt, then black belt in karate

There are endless “what your body can do” goals that you can devise. When you begin concentrating on effort and performance, the vanity aspect fades into the background. If you’re distraught over your thunder thighs, imagine how proud of them you’ll be when they can complete a five-mile hilly hike with ease.

If you’re distressed over a receding hairline, guys, it won’t matter so much when you realize your bench press is progressing like a demon.

We’d all like to change something about our body that we have little or no control over. Every women would love to zap away all the hair follicles on her legs so she never has to shave again. Many men would like to be taller.

Rather than stew over that which we cannot change, let’s expend energy on changing what we can change: stamina, strength, fitness and health. Don’t get caught up with “body types.” Instead, get caught up with body strength, body endurance and body fitness.

Eat healthful foods not because you want to look like a Victoria’s Secret model, but because you want to slash your risk of breast cancer and be around to see your grandkids grow up.

It’s always the right time to improve your self-image, no matter where you’re at on the continuum. For more assistance in getting on the path to liking what you can do, give us a call.  Achieving fitness goals will not only help you appreciate your body more, but you will like the changes your body makes in the mirror.

Copyright © 2010-2012, www.TheBootCampGirls.com

  Check it out, practice and get better!

THE KETTLEBELL SWING

~ Rob Hudson

For those of you not yet familiar with our Challenge, here are the details:

Track your minutes of cardio activity for the entire month of May. Post your time completed on the Challenge Board with the goal to accumulate at least 500  minutes.  The board is divided into 20 minute increments and you get a star for each 2o minutes.  Now that’s an incentive program!  We have over 70 people participating, so join us. It’s not too late!

If you can’t lose weight, there are specific reasons for this that you have more control over than you think.

You’re not strength training. Often, people who can’t lose weight don’t do any strength training. The more lean, sleek muscle you have, the faster your resting metabolism, because muscle is the body’s most metabolically active tissue.

You’re not exercising in a way that forces the body to adapt. The adaptive response requires energy; it raises your body’s energy needs. The body will then dig into stored fat for this energy.

If you’ve been strength training and the weight hasn’t been coming off, it’s because you’re not doing much more than merely going through the motions.

There’s the story of a heavy-set woman who was doing lat pull-downs with 70 pounds. A trainer waltzed over, knelt beside her, said “Hi” with a smile, then moved the machine’s pin to the 100 pound mark.  The woman’s mouth fell open, but the trainer said, “You’re going to do 100 pounds for your next set, and eight times.”  “I can’t do 100 pounds!”  “Oh yes you can. Trust me. You’re going to complete eight reps.”

The woman said her goal was to lose weight, but nothing was happening despite regular workouts. She began pulling down the bar, and it wasn’t easy. She had to fight her way to the eighth rep, but she completed eight full repetitions.  The trainer said, “Now that’s the way every set should feel. Apply this effort level to all of your sets for every exercise. You won’t lose weight if you keep doing something your body is efficient at. You must do something that forces you to struggle. Struggling begets weight loss.”

A month later the woman reported having dropped an entire dress size.  Moral of this true story: Exercises that require struggling will burn fat and cause weight loss, especially when coupled with sensible eating.

You eat mindlessly. Every little sample and nugget counts. One tablespoon of gravy is 100 calories. A “little bit here and there” adds up. Avoid eating due to cues not related to sustenance, such as watching TV.

You drink diet sodas. (We’ve written about this one before ) Artificial sweeteners often trigger hunger.  Too many processed foods. These trigger hunger, and too much white sugar and high fructose corn syrup will get stored as fat.

You skip breakfast. We would like to add that you skip protein at breakfast, which we think is important.  Breakfast, even if it’s only a cup of yogurt, tends to tame later-day appetite.   Skipping it can make you feel entitled to overeat later on.

You don’t do cardio. It’s amazing how many people, who don’t do cardio, wonder why they can’t lose weight.  Taking care of two preschoolers or pulling weeds does not replace structured cardiovascular exercise.

You hold onto the treadmill. This has got to be one of the most weight-loss-sabotaging habits out there. The body has absolutely no reason to burn more fat in response to make-believe walking.  Instead, pump the arms and get winded to force your body to adapt. Remember, the body won’t adapt to something that it’s very efficient at doing (e.g., walking while holding onto something for support).

You don’t do HIIT: highintensity interval training. This form of cardio blasts fat.

Inconsistent exercise habits. Weight loss won’t go hard and deep if your workouts are not consistent. Even if you’re doing everything right in the gym, consistency is still very important.

Poor sleeping habits. Research shows that under six hours of sleep and over nine are strongly linked to excess body fat.

Too much daytime napping. Excessive inertia means a slowed metabolism to accommodate it.

Before you blame your parents and grandparents for having “the wrong genes,” review your lifestyle habits to find out what can be modified to promote fat loss.  Changing any one of these things can help you achieve your weight loss goals. 

For more details on changes you can make to boost weight loss, call us today.

Whatever the reason, we would love to see you in class again!  We would love to make it easy for you to sign up and sign up your friends.  Go to this link to check out the 20% OFF SPECIAL for all returning “bootcampers”.  New clients can get the special as well.

CLICK HERE:  http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=5nqy5rcab&oeidk=a07e321ea266ff01dd6

Get fit and stay fit!

Rob Hudson

The purpose of this article is three-fold, 1) to review Mark Sisson’s information regarding growth plates in youth, 2) to give my brief opinion on strength training for young teens, and 3) to give my overall opinion if strength training helps the young athlete be more competitive in their chosen sport.  I hope you find this article helpful.

In Mark Sisson’s Daily Apple he writes a good article regarding kids and exercise.  He is promoting his own methodology and books of course, but he has some good information regarding youth and growth plates.  If you take the time to reach the bottom of the blog post, I think it is interesting to read about what parents of younger children are doing to keep active with their kids and keep their kids active.  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-should-children-exercise/#axzz1nD3t9w6Z

I can say that the “growth plate concern” is really no concern of mine.  Kids and let’s face it most adults, don’t have to do much physical activity these days.  Just think back to the time when kids actually had to work hard at their chores, assist in baling hay, clean out stalls, move wheel barrows full of yard waste, etc…  It is good for them to do weight bearing exercises from a young age with their own body weight, and as they get older (13+) with dumbbells, barbells or machines.  I think strength training exercises give the added benefit of body awareness, body conscienceness, and ultimately confidence.

I have 35 plus years of experience strength training and more than 30 years of coaching and training clients of all ages, some of which are pre-teens and many of them teenagers. So, here is my advice to you as a parent of a young teen and as a strength coach with experience.  If you have a swimmer, a basketball player, a football player entering high school athletics they will probabaly very soon be introduced to the high school weight room with the rest of their teammates.  They will get at best about 20:1 instruction.  I think it is very important that they get some good individual or small group coaching on how to move their body in a safe effective way and to have someone early on critique their form on weight lifting.  From the onset, it is important to get into good weight lifting habits.  It takes a consistency in coaching to teach specific movement patterns in lifting, whether you are using your own body weight or adding weight with dumbbells or barbells.

Does strength training help the young athlete become more competetive in their chosen sport? 

I think it depends on the sport and the age level the child is at in the sport itself.  For the very young athlete of 8,9 and 10, the skill set of the sport is more important.  At the age the child undergoes puberty, however, strength workouts with at least the child’s body weight provides a benefit.  For some sports there may always be more emphasis on the technical skill of the sport itself.  Being stronger is a good thing, having physical capacity is a good thing. I think you have to develop the skills first in some sports (like soccer), and then add strength and conditioning to the game a little later.  Football,wrestling, and other contact sports may benefit earlier on from strength and conditioning due to the nature of the game. 

Contact me  505-3488  if you would like to discuss your teen’s progress in the weight room, or schedule a small group for some personalized coaching.  Summer is the perfect time to add weight and strength in preparaton for the fall sport season.

Check out the video(s) of part of a workout with a group of athletes that worked with me over their off-season.  This is just a sampling of their workout for that day and not meant to encompass all that they have accomplished with their strength training.  I think you will see that we focus on good form and technique and safely mastering strength movements.  It is a work in progress.

Sample workout with 13 & 14 yr.olds.

Pushup Instruction

My goal for this year is to achieve a level of conditioning that I haven’t had since 2004.  I was at my leanest body composition then, and my strength and muscularity were at a peak level for me.  I re-started a good eating program for me in January.  At this time I weighed in at 185 lbs.  Since January I have lost 3 1/2 inches off of my waist, and my weight is down to 171.  My body leanness is improving weekly through my plan of disciplined eating and exercise. 

I want to see what I can achieve at the age of 50, which is just around the corner.  My inspiration is Sylvester Stallone.  If he can do it, then I can do it!   Check out a compilation video of some of  the exercises and workouts that I’ve been doing since January this year. 

Train hard, smart, and with passion!

Rob

FUN: 1. Something that provides mirth or amusement. 2. Enjoyment or playfulness. (Random House Webster’s College Dictionary)

Losing a client because they just weren’t having fun in the workout gets me a little down and a little bit frustrated.  You will hear it from TV “Docs”, fitness magazine article contributors, fitness gurus, and perhaps your own doctor that in order to make sure you regularly exercise you need to find something that is fun, something that you enjoy.

I think many people routinely confuse exercise with a fun activity and then think that a fun activity is the same thing as training.  I BELIEVE and accept that I need to do a lot of things that aren’t necessarily fun in my training sessions in order to be able to have fun later (like snowskiing, or waterskiing, or running that 5K to raise money for my favorite philanthropy).  I look at fitness and working out as part of my daily healthcare routine.  For me, brusing my teeth isn’t something that registers a blip on the fun meter.  I don’t recall the last time I had fun in the dentist’s chair or at my annual pelvic exam.

Even when I glance up at the wall in the Strength & Conditioning Room and read FUN WORK HARD PLAY, I mentally skip over the word fun.  I know it will be fun after I’m done. 

I agree you should find a sports activity that you find enjoyable like biking, hiking, dancing, flag fooball, etc…  However, don’t confuse getting in shape for those activities or TRAINING for those sports as the same thing.  It is like confusing having a beautiful smile (fun) with sitting in an orthodontist’s office getting braces on (not so much fun).

The TRAINING part of getting in shape to participate in sports and activities won’t  be fun from start to finish.  There are some aspects of the workout that will be fun, and it should feel mostly rewarding at the end.  However, I don’t want to beat myself up if I don’t have FUN.  For me, my workout should be hard work, and I might even slightly dread it some days…yes, I said it.  It is hard to be happy for every training session.

I’m not saying your training sessions should not have any element of enjoyment or playfulness in them (mine do), but I think many people’s expectation is that its going to be ALL fun, and it just isn’t.  You will feel the biggest “buzz” or jolt of fun when you get on the field, run that race, or do that tri and kick butt!  Now, there is your fun.

I’m definitely in the minority here on my views based on what I hear, read and see every day regarding exercise.  I do have fun off and on during my workouts, but they don’t have to be fun for me to enjoy them.  I would love to hear your comments and opinions on this subject.  Write me at lhudson@fbdindy.com.

I want to mention the participants and congratulate them on their finishes.  Thank you for participating whether you did 25, 50, 75, or 100 miles!

Rob Hudson 100, Matt Hudson 100, Steve Smith 100, Deb Wharton 75, Paula Hudson 75, John Morgan 75, Lisa Hudson 75,  Maureen Martin 50, Lance Collins 25, Barb Stewart 25.

We also had 3 winners in the drawings…Barb Stewart won a manicure with Cindy Wells, Deb Wharton won a Busy Bee Headband and FBD T-shirt combo, and Maureen Martin won one month of complimentary water and “after workout” snacks at FBD.

Make sure you check out our next challenge, 500 Minutes in May.  More info will be posted soon!

~ Lisa Hudson