Nancy Carlson
Nancy Carlson
As many of you know Get Fit NH Bootcamp is proud to have some of our country’s finest train with us. Some of those in the military have just departed for a tour overseas. Michael from the 5 am Epsom class is one of those. He recently wrote to his class, and allowed us to reprint it here. His humor is contagious. His perspective priceless.
Thank-you Mike, for your service to our country!
“Hello All,
Just wanted to let you know that I arrived safe and sound in Kandahar on Oct 1, 2010 hit the ground running and haven’t stopped yet.
We took the scenic route through Shannon Ireland, Bucharest Romania, Kyrgyzstan and on to the rugged moonscape of Afghanistan.
From Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan I got to experience the joy of flight in full “Battle Rattle” (helmet, body armor and weapon) wedged into a seat on a C-17 unable to move anything for two hours. Then when the airfield was in sight we did a combat landing into the airfield (think of jumping from a burning skyscraper, same heat no flames) and an engine running offload into the blazing hot sun. It make the most extreme “Fun Friday” pale in comparison.
I am the oldest guy here and many of my troops want to know what it was like when this place was green. I like to show them the picture I carved in granite and captioned in Hieroglyphics. Their awe is like a living thing.
I’ve started calling this the geezers save the world tour. I hope it catches on the royalties would be nice.
I’m able to keep up with the younger guys here and even won a pushup contest and no one can beat me arm wrestling. I am in good shape and continuing to workout it is kinda quiet however…
My goal for joining “boot camp” was to be able to run when someone said “RUN” but when I got here I found a different scenario when the “big voice” wails we have to hit the floor wait 2 min and get to our positions, Very little running. We do walk everywhere though.
If we find in the future that dust is the key component of either a cure for cancer, time travel or anti-gravity coating then no nation on earth will be able to compete with this one.
I am the Passenger Terminal Manager here and I work from 0000 hrs to 1200 hrs working to fulfill the traveling GI’s every need (except food, water, comfort, compassion, empathy, sympathy, etc…)
Did I mention I can get them all the dust they need?
I’ve seen the aircraft systems that I’ve worked on, on a lot of aircraft and discussions with aircrews is unanimously positive. It’s very gratifying to be on both sides of this equation.
It is a grand adventure, the locals provide fireworks for us that are breathtaking to behold, they even serenade us 6 times a day from the minaret outside my quarters.
I live in a thing that has been nicknamed a “can” it is a living space made out of a sea/land container and that has all of the comforts of solitary confinement except that I have a roommate. It has the feel of a walk-in freezer.
The base is a shared command with the Canadians currently in charge (go figure eh!), They are complete tools and are making the best out of being on top for once, makes for some wildly entertaining episodes.
I have taken to singing the national anthems for various international soldiers that are traveling through my terminal. And have been serenaded in turn with our anthem sung in just about every language you can imagine, aboriginal dialect and tagalong from the Philippines.
Did I Mention the dust? The entire country is made out of dust the consistency of drywall sanding residue, grey in color, the whole place looks like the rest of the world has been emptying their vacuum cleaner bags here. There is NO vegetation, yet somehow they manage to grow 90% of the worlds opium. There is plenty of suck here to pass around and I am very glad we got a hold of our government and avoided this mess, it’s much better to have it here.
They even have Navy groups here whoda thunk it, I wonder how they got those big boats here?
If anyone is foolish enough to visit I will save them a warm bottle of water and we will toast porcelain toilets and privacy, however that sounds like something that could be done at home also.
I miss Laurie, Kate, and you guys, it is good to do this on so many levels and it sharpens the realization of just how good my life really is. I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.
On a lesser level I also miss water in the toilet, clean sheets, empty hands, sleeves that you can roll up, shirts you can take off, colors other than tan or grey, food you choose, food you cook, food you can eat, an office that is not under the stairs and that I can stand up in, not having to tell travelers that the fragmentation grenades they have in their hand carry bags cannot go through the x-ray machine and no I don’t care if you do it all the time. No we don’t run the dogs through the x-ray even though we do send them as baggage. The list goes on and on.
It is a very weird feeling to take firearms of all types from passengers, send them through the X-ray, seeing the images on the screen and then returning them to the people at the other end.
I even got a “man kiss” (kind of a french two cheek thing) from a Jordanian Army officer who felt I was very helpful to him and his crew, his culture.
I was awarded the call sign of “professor” By a 2 star general as he transited through for those who don’t get it its a good thing.
I was coined by a one star for outstanding accomplishment, again a good thing.
All in all a unique experience. If you are interested I’ll send pictures (as soon as I lose 10 lbs, lost 6 in just the first week)”
Michael (5AM Gang in Epsom)
Ingredients:
Two 8-ounce salmon fillets, without skin
1 tbsp coconut oil
Salt & fresh ground pepper, to taste
Pat the salmon fillet dry with a paper towel, and then season both sides of each fillet with salt and a generous amount of pepper. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add fillets to the skillet and cook until edges are opaque and bottoms are golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes for 1-inch thick fillets. Gently flip the fillets with a spatula and cook another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is firm yet tender and moist, and the flesh has become opaque with a slight translucence. Serve immediately garnished with chopped fresh parsley if desired. Serves two.
Tip: When is salmon cooked just right?
Cooking your salmon until it’s ‘flaky’, as commonly suggested, can result in overcooking. Here’s how to cook it just right: use a paring knife to peek inside the middle of the fillet. If the flesh is translucent, it is undercooked. If it is opaque and slightly flaky but still juicy, it is ready to serve. It is overcooked when the flesh falls apart and looks dry.
Not so good...
Good body mechanics manifest in good posture and vice versa. To help you evaluate your current posture here are a few keys to look at.
To visualize what normal posture would be, imagine a weighted string hung from your ear. To someone looking at you from the side this string will pass through the center of your ear, your shoulder, the curve of your lower back, your hip, and the outside of your knee down to the outside of your ankle bone. When all these landmarks are lined up, the body is best able to support and distribute your body weight.
Your posture from the front should find your feet square to the ground with your knees pointing forward and your shoulder and pelvis level to the ground with your head rising above your shoulders. Your head should not be tilting to one side or the other. If you drew a line on the ground and stand toe-to-toe to it, your knees, hips, and shoulders should also be square to the line.
Having someone take your picture with as few as clothes on as possible will help you to study your own posture. Take pictures from the front, sides, and back. Look at the height of your knees, shoulders, and hips. Are they equal in height to each other, and to the ground? Can you draw a straight line through all the points described above? Do your shoulders slouch forward? Does your upper body lean back a bit? Is your head in front of your shoulders?
Answering these questions will help you to find if your posture is in balance or not. Joint pain can be caused by our body compensating for a lack of balance in our posture. Gravity is our universal enemy. It never grows tired and it is always at work. Our body can stay strong and healthy by keeping a proper alignment in our posture.
It takes work. It takes work just to stand correctly. But we are not stationary creatures, we sit, walk, run, and move in various directions. To move correctly we need to stand correctly.
Take a look at your posture. Are you standing tall?
Coach Nancy
Each morning before I step onto the floor I make sure my feet are more awake than I am. Getting my feet ready to support my body weight with a quick massage and stretch is just like doing the big arm stretch right after I get out of bed. You know, feet work so hard and they really take a beating so I like to take the time to honor their work and let them know I’m grateful.
Did you know that your feet have 26 bones, 33 joints and over 100 tendons! And that’s without mentioning the ligaments and muscles in your feet.
So I think we should honor our feet! (knees will have to wait for their time in a later blog). After all, remember Neil Armstrong’s quote as he “stepped” onto the moon. “That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for all mankind.”
First of all, lets see what your feet can tell you about your health. If you have a pain in your foot your gait changes, and when your gait changes your entire body is affected which can create back pain, hip problems, sore leg muscles – even aching shoulders and neck.
Remember if you act like a heel to your foot it can come back and kick you in the butt. (I’m cracking myself up with all these puns)
So whenever you find yourself with a pain in the foot please pay attention, because it can be the beginning of a multitude of problems.
In fact, any sign of foot trouble may be the start of other problems. For instance, chronic pain, calluses that go unchecked, very dry skin, swelling, redness or discoloration in the toe nails all are problems that need to be addressed.
Now, get this…the foot has over 250,000 sweat glands! So, wash your feet! Clean and dry between the toes; this will get rid of the moisture and bacteria that cause feet to stink and creates nasty skin problems. Don’t be average adult who doesn’t reach their feet with a washcloth or other abrasive material that can eliminate dry skin and fungus.
Most ingrown toenails are due to improper nail clipping. Cut the nails straight across, no cute little angles on the sides that can cause the nail to grow improperly causing a painful toenail and a doctor’s appointment to correct it.
Feet change and spread over the years so it’s important that you measure. Most adults don’t bother with it. They assume that the size they got last time they bought shoes will do this time as well. Maybe another reason why so many people end up with sore feet.
Don’t keep your feet in old worn out shoes. There should be a thumb size space between the end of the toe and the end of the shoe. Not having the correct shoe size can result in runner’s toe, calluses, ingrown nails, fungal nail infections, and hammertoe deformities. (I’m not saying who has toes that look like mushrooms)
Now you know Dean and I love our Vibram Five Fingers. Here is what Vibram says about their footwear.
“Wearing FiveFingers during strength and fitness conditioning can increase your comfort, balance, performance and overall sense of control. That’s because many of the poses and exercises you perform during strength and fitness training rely on flexible yet stable support from your feet and legs.” (the support is not coming from our shoes but from our own body)
Whether you chose traditional sneakers or back to barefoot basics we need to treat our feet like they are important.
So there you have it. Take care of your feet and they will take care of your body and sole. ( I just had to get one more pun in)
Coach Nancy
Try this little experiment. Place a coin on the floor. Stand about 6 inches away from the coin. With your eyes open, attempt to touch the coin with your big toe (it doesn’t matter which foot). Now close your eyes and try it again.
If your ‘proprioception’ is in tune, then you should be able to touch the coin or at least get very close to it. However, if your proprioception is not functioning at a high level, then you will miss it by miles. The more times you repeat the same movement pattern the better it is ingrained on your nerve endings and you’ll soon find you can hit the coin each time even with your eyes closed.
So what is ‘proprioception’? Why is it important, and how do we train it?
Proprioception can be defined as “ an unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself.”
Balance is not an example of proprioception. Balance control comes from the inner ear and not the body senses. However, the balance systems are intertwined heavily with the proprioceptive systems. If you’ve been at Get Fit NH Bootcamp for a while then you’ve played our warm up game “Get up and balance” This warm up is an example of how balance and proprioception are related.
Common examples from everyday life:
Where does proprioception come from?
Our muscles, ligaments and tendons are filled with nerve endings and receptors that allow us to perceive where our limbs are in space. These receptors send messages to our central nervous system (CNS) and the CNS in turn relays information to the brain. This information is compared to the information received from the eyes and ears, which in turn allows us to co-ordinate hand/foot-eye coordination as well as balance.
Why do people have poor proprioception?
The two main groups that suffer from poor propioception are the injured/ill and the elderly. With any injury, the damage tissue alters the pain mechanisms that feed our brains. The messages tend to ‘fog’ up the nerve cells in the brain so that we don’t have such a defined sense of position anymore. Injuries to the knees or ankle tend to make us feel unstable. The elderly have ageing nerve endings and their nerves do not conduct information as effectively as younger people. They have more trouble with activities requiring body awareness and as a result often bump themselves easily and falls can result.
Can we improve our proprioception?
Absolutely! Proprioception can always be improved through training. The learning of any new skill involves training our proprioceptive sense and re-organizing the nervous system to suit the new activity. The nerve endings and sensory fibers in our muscles, ligaments and tendons become more effective at picking up changes in body position. In turn, the nerves become more efficient at transmitting the information to the brain, and the brain becomes better at responding to this information.
Practice, Practice, Practice is training our proprioception. Learning a new exercise and training our bodies to perform it will increase the use of that nervous system pathway. That is one reason it is so important to perform a movement pattern correctly from the start. We are training our muscles which are taking their cue from the nervous system. New movements will keep our brains working and increase our proprioception.
Proprioception is a fancy word but knowing we are keeping our body fit along with our brain is a great reason to practice this word literally over and over.
To your health,
Coach Nancy
Tired all the time? Grumpy and can’t shake the blahs? Do you have trouble losing weight? Do you walk around in a fog? What about digestive issues? Constantly battling a stuffy nose?
Major health issues like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and auto-immune diseases are dramatic examples of how sugar can wreak havoc in your life. There are less dramatic ways sugar affects our bodies before we experience major problems.
Addictions come in different forms.
What type of addict are you?
Do you often feel tired and achy? Do you need coffee to get going in the morning? Does your energy fade by mid-afternoon? Do you get frequent headaches?
You may be an Energy Shark.
Do you find you are often thirsty and need to use the restroom? Do you get recurrent sore throats and swollen glands? Do you sometimes get dizzy when you stand up? Is life a crisis for you?
You may be a Feed-Me-Now type.
Do you have chronic nasal congestion? Do you have irritable bowels? Have you been clinically treated for acne? Do you clear your throat a lot? Often an overgrowth of yeast internally will cause the sugar cravings like those who are
The Sneak-Around-for-Sugar addicts.
Chronically depressed, fatigued, battling insomnia and a loss of libido might have you classified as a Depressed & Craving Carb addict. Your sugar cravings are caused by fluctuating hormones.
No matter what the type you can fight your way out of your sugar addiction. Nutrition is the key to locking up the addict inside you.
Each addiction has its own issues but don’t let your addiction control you. Furthermore don’t let the addiction you have today bring damaging diseases in your future.
To your health,
Coach Nancy
Reference – Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, author of Beat Sugar Addiction Now!
It all starts here. Nutrition is not half the battle, it is the battle! What we eat is the single most important factor when it comes to how we look and feel. With today’s busy lifestyles, it is more important than ever that we learn to make the best choices to support our healthy goals.
The choices we make when feeding our bodies have both short and long term consequences. Did you know it’s possible to eat too much food and be undernourished? Not only do we become overweight, but are also more susceptible to disease because we are not receiving the nutrients we need for optimal health. It is important to remember that the primary reason we eat is to give our body what it needs to function optimally. A growing number of studies show that Americans do not receive the nutrients they need from their dietary intake.
There are a number of reasons for this. Our crops themselves are not as nutritious as in the past, probably due to soil depletion and the overuse of fertilizers. Fast food restaurants and prepackage foods in our supermarket shelves make it all too easy to consume a large amount of calories with nearly no nutritive value. While such food choices may be fast and convenient, there is no doubt they contribute to obesity and disease.
Over-consumption of grains, particularly refined wheat (eg. white flour) and corn, has also contributed to our growing problem with obesity. Too many grains and not enough variety of vegetables in our diet leads to excess calories and nutrient deficiencies.
While fruit has many critical nutrients and should be enjoyed, it may be helpful to think of it as “nature’s candy” because of the high sugar content. Refined grains and fruit juices can also make controlling blood sugar difficult.
It does take more work to prepare healthy meals, there is no doubt about it. Doing so is a small price to pay when you consider the negative health consequences of eating poorly. Most people do not think about the future, only the here and now, but the cost is greater to fight disease than to prevent disease. Eating for optimal health is the foundation of living well.
Recently we unveiled Fitgoal. Take advantage of all it offers.
• Daily food log so you know exactly what you are feeding yourself.
• Reports so you can monitor your fitness progress after each “Test Day”
• Visuals like charts and graphs for your food intake
• Write out personal goals so you know where you want to go and how you plan on getting there
• A journaling section to list important factors that give insight into your well being.
• The ability to directly contact your trainer through Fitgoal.
We are here to help you reach your goals,
Coach Nancy
Here’s a favorite of Anne from the 8:30 Concord class.
In keeping with the zucchini theme:
Zucchini Boats (makes 8 boats) Preheat oven to 400 degrees
4 medium (8″) zucchini
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
8 oz low-fat or non-fat cottage cheese
paprika, salt and pepper to taste
Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Steam over steaming basket in large pot for about 10-15 minutes.
Zucchini should be firm but able to be scooped out. Scoop out pulp with spoon and chop, leaving a zucchini shell or boat.
Sauté onion until soft. Add soy sauce and chopped zucchini, keep over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Put boats in baking dish and fill each zucchini boat with 1/8 of the mix. Sprinkle paprika on top, if desired.
Bake in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or until hot.
Deb Saks from the 5 AM Concord class sent in this great recipe to help make good use of the over population of zucchini in our gardens.
Zucchini Pizza Disks
slice 3 zucchini’s in round slices 1/4 inch thick
3 slices of Mozzarella cheese
pizza sauce
Broil zucchini rounds until they start to brown (5 or so minutes). Remove from oven and put a 1/2 tsp or so of sauce on each disk. Place a small square of cheese on each top then put back in broiler until starting to brown. These are great!
This recipe and more will be in our Get Fit NH Cookbook that is being produced as a fundraiser for Joshua, who has autism. Joshua is in need of some extra computer equipment to aid in his therapy sessions. With each recipe you send in to us, your name will be entered to win your favorite Get Fit NH Bootcamp t-shirt of sweatshirt. Lets make this a great book for a great kid.
You amazed us last year with your willingness to support Carrie Cates children after she was hit and killed by a hit and run driver last October. You rallied your support and raised over $3000 to give to her kids.
Get Fit NH Bootcamp would like to help another local family whose son needs some specialized equipment. Six-year-old Joshua was diagnosed with Autism-Spectrum Disorder just after his 2nd birthday. Autism is a developmental disorder that impairs a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
“Something changed,” said Joshua’s mother. “He started talking less and less and lost interest in people and toys. It was as if our little boy went away.”
For the last three years Joshua has undergone numerous treatments and therapies to combat his autism. He’s made progress, his mother said, “But it’s been excruciatingly slow.”
Joshua and his parents are looking forward to a new therapy that is expected to increase his vocabulary significantly and improve his communication skills. But the therapy requires a touch-screen computer that will cost $1,500. But with current therapies and medical bills costing as much as $12,000 a year, Joshua’s parents are hard pressed to afford the new computer.
“Joshua is an affectionate boy. He loves to run, swing and climb,” his mother said. “He understands so much, yet it is difficult for him to express it. His inability to talk and communicate is deeply frustrating for him.”
We would like to solve two needs at one time: a way to fund Joshua’s therapy computer and introduce more people to a healthy way to eat.
Many of you have asked for recipes and ideas on how to eat nutritiously. We have been working on our Get Fit NH Bootcamp cookbook for quite awhile, but we want to include some of your favorite healthy recipes as well. This will help us get the cookbook finished, printed and available for sale. One hundred percent of the profits collected for the cookbook will help fund Joshua’s computer and other therapy needs.
So here’s the deal: For every healthy recipe you submit to us your name will be entered into a drawing to win some cool Get Fit NH Bootcamp gear. We’ll choose three names at random to win the T-shirt or Sweatshirt of choice.
To submit your recipes, please click here or send us an email. Contest ends September 15th!
Thanks for all you do!
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