Dean
Dean
I love late August early September. The backyard garden is bulging with produce. One of my favorite growing plants is zucchini. I think it is because they are easy to grow, hard to kill, and produce fruit with little effort. I’m not much of a gardener but I do put get my hands dirty. Donna K. visited the Red Mountain Resort in Utah this summer and brought back this recipe.
Raw Zucchini Alfredo
8 – 1 cup servings
Blend all ingredients except zucchini in a high power blender until smooth and starts to warm up from blender, about 5 minutes to make the Alfredo sauce.
Cut top and bottom off of zucchini. Using the julienne blade on a mandolin cut zucchini length wise to create noodles. Pour sauce over individual portions.
Since zucchini are prolific I wanted to share this recipe from Paulette W. These are one of our family’s favorites year round.
Zucchini Fritters
Shred zucchini and put into large bowl. Sprinkle with the sea salt and toss well. Walk away for 10 min. Scoop up a generous handful of zucchini and squeeze the living daylights out of them. You want the zucchini dry – nobody likes soggy fritters. Place in a different bowl. Add flour, egg, pepper, and baking soda. Stir to combine Heat a large skillet over med-high heat. Melt a spoonful of oil or ghee in the pan. Pack a 1/4 cup of zucchini mixture out onto the pan and flatten until you get a patty. You can cook 4-5 patties at a time. Cook each side for 3-5 min or until brown. Cool on a cooling rack so they don’t get soggy.
Enjoy!
Coach Nancy
Have you ever considered seriously what it takes to be successful?
Angela Lee Duckworth is a psychologist that studied different people in various settings to see what made them successful. On one of her studies she went to West Point to try to predict which cadets would make it through the program and which would drop out. She found that those who succeeded had the most grit. Duckworth defines grit as “passion and perseverance for long term goals”. Grit is not giving up when faced with challenges. It is working on your goal every day.
How do you build grit? Here are a few characteristics of people with grit:
Courage: You must have courage to set goals and not be afraid to fail. Some of us are perfectionist (myself included) and we never take that step outside of our comfort zone because we are scared of failing. Don’t let fear paralyze you because you may miss out on something great!
Goal Oriented: The most gritty and successful people set goals and then work relentlessly to achieve them. If you don’t set goals then how do you know where you are going? After you have your goal you must have an action plan to get there. Then you work on it daily!
Endurance: Life is a marathon not a sprint. Malcom Gladwell states in his book Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in a field. To achieve success we must be willing to put in the time necessary. There are no short cuts or quick fixes!
Resilience: Success is not linear. There are going to be bumps in the road. People who have grit and are successful are also resilient. They use every opportunity as a chance for growth and have confidence to move forward.
Excellence: Not perfection! We must strive for excellence in everything we do. When we seek perfection we often get discouraged because we don’t achieve it. Perfection is not realistic. Excellence is an attitude that is positive and motivating.
Let’s work together to build these characteristics and some Grit!
I am very proud to share the story of Alice DonnaSelva. We have been blessed to have Alice in our 6:15 AM training time for almost a year. She is an incredible inspiration to the student’s around her. You want to see a woman who pushes herself to no end, Alice is your lady! I have had the opportunity to sit with Alice several times and discuss goals. I remember two of her first goals were to increase her push ups for the Get Fit Games and be able to do jumping chins. Alice dedicated about 15-20 minutes 2 days per week where she would stay after training and work on her chin progressions as well as work on her push ups (chest all the way to a tennis ball too!) Alice is a perfect example of how hard work and dedication get you real life results. She shares how far she has come below and I can’t tell you how proud I am to be her coach.
“I came to Get Fit NH mostly to get stronger, especially to strengthen core muscles. I had gone to the doctor for a routine check up and mentioned that I was losing my balance more frequently – which was a concern because my mom had Ataxia and the beginning symptoms are usually loss of balance. There is a good chance I could have it as well because it is hereditary. My doctor thought it was unlikely I had it since I had been running for about 6 years and hiked and did some weight routines without significant trouble. She suggested that i try strengthening my core muscles.
“The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.” – Martina Navratilova
Today I was reading an article by one of my favorite coaches, Martin Rooney, but before I go in to the blog let me give you a quick snapshot about this guy Martin. You may have heard one of us mention him before. He is the founder of Training for Warriors (TFW) and most of your coaches are TFW certified. Coach Dean spent last weekend with Martin and the TFW family down in Charlotte NC sharpening the tools in his toolbox to help us all get better.
Martin Rooney is the type of coach (and probably the type of person) that when he speaks, people listen. He is incredibly engaging and somehow forces you to think outside of the box AND get excited about it. This guy fires me up like no one else. Quite a few months back on a Saturday we went to Boston to a conference where he was speaking at and let me tell you…I was bummed that Monday was kicking off a recovery week, because he fired me up so much I couldn’t wait to see you guys and coach you! That is just a little back story so when you see a lot of my blogs referring to this Martin Rooney guy you understand that he inspires me and I want to share it with you.
So back to the blog-
I came across this statement in one of his blogs and I just wanted to expand on it a little bit.
“To be successful in life, you must commit. If you freeze, you lose. There should be no halfway in anything you do.”
Commitment is a trait that all successful people have in common. Since I am your coach I am going to apply this to your health. So let’s think about this, you’ve already made the commitment to yourself, right? You walked through the doors of Get Fit NH and you agreed to let us help you get better.
Now let’s think about some of these other things we could be committing to,,,,’
1. Are you committed to training 4 days per week consistently? (Or 2 days per week if that is the plan you chose)
– Consistently meaning you almost never miss training unless you are on vacation or sick
– If work gets in the way you make it
– A priority to get to another training time and communicate with your coach
2. Are you committed to your training program?
Yes, that is a different question then the one above. You could come in and go through the motions or you could get in here and kill it every single day.
“Kill it” meaning you’re paying attention to load selection throughout the weeks and you are progressing as you are able. Kill it meaning you are going as fast as you can on those metabolic days and not letting that little voice inside your head bring you down. (You know the one that is telling you that you should slow down) Your body is capable of much more than your mind gives it credit for!
Committed to your training program meaning you are so focused on what you are doing and how you are doing it that you are unable to talk through training (I say that with lots of love so don’t take it personal if you’re guilty!)
3. Are you committed to the other 165?
What is the other 165, you ask? Great question. The other 165 refers to the other 165 hours per week that you are not here in the gym training. That is a lot of time! That is a lot of time where you need to be committed to your goal without your coach breathing down your neck!
What you do outside of the gym matters. What you put in your mouth matters. How you fuel your body matters. You have a choice every single day, right? You can choose to get better or you can choose not to progress.
4. Are you committed to your nutrition?
This kind of goes along with the other 165 above, BUT let me ask you this…if you are committed to getting better and you are committed to your goals (whether your goals are to lose weight, lose body fat, get stronger) then it would be safe to assume you have made it a priority to get to one of the Whole 9 Seminars and catch a copy of our custom nutrition handbooks, right? I know a TON of you have made that a priority and I am super proud. If you have not been able to attend one then make it a priority. We will be holding at least one of these seminars monthly.
Every single one of you came to Get Fit NH to get better in one way or another. You all have committed to walking through the doors to be better than you were yesterday. We all have areas where we can get better. What can you commit to in order to get better?
I am going to commit to trying 3 new recipes from the Whole 9 handbook! Now let me know what YOU are committing to? (If you don’t share it, whose holding you accountable!?!)
Write YOUR commitment in the comment box right below this article.
Make it Happen,
Meagan
Wait a second, is that Recovery Rules as in… “Yo Garth, recovery ruuuuuuulllllleeeeeessss dude!”
or as in
“Robert’s Rules of Recovery?” (If you are under 30 you may not get either reference, sorry…)
Actually it’s a little bit of both.
Recovery really does Rule, one way or the other, as in “If you don’t voluntarily take recovery time off your body will MAKE you take time off when it gets sick, tired and run down.”
But there are also Rules for Recovery, as in “What are some things I can do to make sure my body is ready for the training cycle ahead?”
With apologies to Tyler Darden, here is the first rule of recovery.
No whining about taking recovery.
Here is the second rule of recovery.
No whining about taking recovery.
A properly managed training cycle insures you get adequate training stress and adequate recovery in order to make progress, which is why we write our training cycles the way we do.
August 25th through 29th is our next recovery week.
This is part of your training program, and is a necessary deload to keep you healthy and moving forward. Those who follow the training plan, including this part of it, are the ones who make the most progress. Those who ignore it are much more likely to get injured and not be at their best. I have seen it over and over again. Deload is a necessary part of the training cycle. Take some time, read these articles, and remind yourself why. You’re welcome! 🙂
Recovery, Deload, and Getting Better
Rest, Recover and Regenerate, It’s Not Optional
Recovery Is Where The Magic Happens
Last but not least you will want to note our schedule change for Monday September 1st, which is Labor Day. We are going to be having an “all family” training session at Get Fit NH Concord from 8:00am to 9:30am. This will be our only training time of the day, so come on in, get an incredible training session in, and then enjoy the day with your family and friends – you earned it!
That’s it for now guys.
You want it, you gotta Make It Happen!
Coach Dean
On Friday Jenn Hittle started calling out the Get Fit NH family to do the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS Awareness, and you guys have responded big time. It’s been fun to see all the creative ways to dump ice and water over someone’s head!
You can read about how the Ice Bucket Challenge started here: http://www.alsa.org/news/archive/ice-bucket-challenge.html and former BC center fielder Pete Frates story here: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11163889/mlb-former-boston-college-centerfielder-pete-frates-faces-als
While it’s a good thing to raise awareness, we wanted to use this opportunity to do some good “better”, so here’s what we decided to do.
For every member of the Get Fit NH family who posts of video of themselves doing the ice bucket challenge on Facebook with the hashtags #GETFITNH and #BEATALS Get Fit NH will donate $10 to the ALS Association. For every tweet and retweet of those videos with those same hashtags we will donate $1, up to a total of $1000. I am thinking it might be a good time to invest in ice!
Alright team, whaddya say? Are you up for the ice bucket challenge? Nothing like having some fun and doing some good all at the same time!
I may be biased, but this is still my favorite one! Coach Nancy takes the Ice Bucket Challenge
Make It Happen!
Coach Dean and the Get Fit NH Team
We had a tremendous response for the first two, so we are putting two more on the calendar. Please take a note of the days and times and be there!
You can learn all about Whole9 by clicking here
Whole9 Nutrition Seminar 3
Date: Tuesday August 12, 2014
Time: 6:45pm to 7:45pm
Place: Get Fit NH Concord
Whole9 Nutrition Seminar 4
Date: Saturday August 16, 2014
Time: 9:30am to 10:30am (then join us for Rock Climbing!)
Place: Get Fit NH Concord
On Saturday August 16th at 11:00am we will be headed across the parking lot to Evolution Rock and Fitness. We reserved a time for Get Fit NH student’s to learn how to climb and spend some time as a family.
Evolution Rock + Fitness provides the most modern and extensive climbing walls in northern New England. They have 16,000 square feet of climbing surface, there is something for everyone at all levels of ability, and they were kind enough to build the facility in our neighborhood – you’re welcome! 🙂 There is enough fun in this place for the whole family- make it a family fun day and bring your kids along!
Check out some of the pictures from our trip over there last year. We all had a great time (even Coach Dean, who kinda despises high things). If you have a fear of heights let’s conquer that fear together on August 16th.
The best part is we worked out a great price for you guys- just $20 will get you a climbing class, rentals, and the rest of the day to climb if you’d like. The climbing class will also teach and certify you how to belay. That means you could go to Evolution Rock and Fitness anytime and not have to pay the staff to belay you- score!
We went even further and worked out a membership discount with them. So if rock climbing is your sport or if you want to make rock climbing your sport, then ask us about the discount Evolution has offered our clients!
The student spotlight this week goes to a very special student who has been training with us for 5 years- Deb Rosenthal! She shares her journey with Get Fit NH below. I have had the pleasure of working with Deb over the past (almost) 2 years and this woman is faithful. She makes it to training without question every single day. Her big turning point was during the 21 Day Detox. Deb embraced this challenge and it completely changed her. You will read below that she has dropped weight, body fat, pants sizes, and feels great. This woman has been non-stop since January. She gets her body fat read consistently and has dropped a tremendous amount of body fat. I am so proud of Deb for setting a great example and making it happen. Don’t forget to check out her before and after picture below- pretty awesome!
“When I first came to Get Fit NH Concord in 2009 I was overweight and sluggish. I had participated in boot camps in my native Dallas, TX where everything was bigger including me! I was looking for a training facility in Concord when I noticed on the back of a Rock n Race T-Shirt that Get Fit NH was a sponsor. It was perfect timing as Get Fit was starting in Concord. My initial goal was to lose body fat and get stronger both of which I have accomplished. I have struggled with my weight all my life. I have tried all the common programs available to most people. I have been at Get Fit for over 5 years and have enjoyed every minute. I always knew Dean was on the right track about the way he and his family fueled their bodies, but I did not want to wrap my arms around his prescribed diet and give up certain foods. When Dean offered the 21 Day Detox this past January 2014, I agreed to give it a try and to this day I am still following the Detox daily regime. I have never felt so good and it is so much fun when people tell me how baggy my clothes are now. I love the energy I have at the 5 am class and throughout the day. I could not think of any other way I would want to start 4 days during the week other than at Get Fit NH. The Get Fit coaches really consider every client a part of their family and are very interested in helping each client reach their goals which is heartwarming to me.
The Get Fit NH Coaches not only care about their clients, but Get Fit NH gives back to the community with their fundraising weekend events. They are always encouraging me to challenge myself and push myself physically which is much appreciated. Coaches, thank you for all you do for us each and every day. I am ready to embrace the Whole 9 Nutrition which will take my nutritional levels to the new heights!! GET FIT NH ROCKS!!!!”
Deb now supports her faithful training with a solid nutrition plan. Since January Deb has lost almost 30 pounds and a total of 6.7% body fat. She is a solid example of how a our professional training program + nutrition + action=results! Keep making it happen, Deb!
Coach Meagan
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