Summer Salads and Sides

I love hot weather and the food associated with it. A bowl full of fresh picked veggies from the garden makes me smile. While salads are a summer food, you’ll find you bring the recipes from this workshop out all year round.

In “Six Week Sprint to Summer” we eat vegetables at every meal. The variety of veggies you can pack into a salad will delight the taste buds and keep your menu from getting boring.

Get Fit NH Epsom will host our “Summer Salads & Sides” workshop on June 4th from 6-7:30. I’m looking forward to spritzing up your menu with salads that make a meal and side dishes that make the plate tantalizing.

Summer Salads & Sides
Date: Wednesday June 4, 2014
Time: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Place: Get Fit NH Epsom

Menu Planning and Prep

There’s no doubt that prepping and planning your meals is not only crucial to achieving your best body, but also extremely challenging! Today’s hectic lifestyles make “grab and go” a lot more likely than “sit and relax”.

Who’s got the time to prepare?

In this seminar Coach Nancy (who is a mom of six, homeschools her kids and is a full-time fitness professional) will guide you every step of the way.

Nancy says “Achieving your best body AND eating great food can coexist. The key lies in your ability to PRE-PLAN and PREPARE. You must reorganize the way you eat. At “Menu Planning and Prep” you’ll learn how to easily pull mealtime together for your family. You’ll walk away with a week’s worth of dinner meal plans plus the ability to expand that to a whole month. Your ‘Six Week Sprint to Summer’ will be kicked into high gear after this workshop.

Where can you find this workshop? Who can attend? Get Fit NH Epsom will host this event on May 21 from 6-7:30pm. Please ask those people who support you during your Six Week Sprint to Summer to come along too.

Menu Planning & Prep
Date: Wednesday May 21, 2014
Time: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Place: Get Fit NH Epsom

Plan on attending these other “Six Week Sprint to Summer” nutritional workshops

“Cheat Your Way Through Meal Preparation” Wednesday, May 28 at Get Fit NH Concord from 5:30-7

“Summer Salads and Sides” Wednesday, June 4th from 6-7:30 at Get Fit NH Epsom

Coach Meagan’s S3 Tips

Hi all, Coach Meagan here.

As I sit here planning my meals for the Six Week Sprint into Summer (S3) I thought I would share some of my strategies for the upcoming challenge. Many of you know how I am not a huge fan of cooking, but as you can imagine I have big goals that I am working toward- so I’m going to suck it up!

Here are the steps I take to make my nutrition go as planned:

1) Plan my meals for the following week Wednesday morning. From that create my grocery list.

2) Grocery shopping on Sunday- stick to the perimeter of the store to avoid temptation (with the exception of frozen veggies!) and stick to the list!

3) Sunday is my prep day. Remember how I said I don’t like cooking? Half the battle (for me) is prepping. If you don’t have it prepped and planned ahead of time there is a pretty good chance you will forget something or just skip it (like adding those extra veggies, because you didn’t want to cut them up!) “Prep day” entails primarily:

– Cutting up veggies and bagging them for each meal they’re going with.

– Prep meat- whether that means cutting it up or just taking it out of the package, adding the veggies, and sticking it in a freezer bag labeled “Monday Dinner”

You can add these tips to fit your schedule too. By taking the time do this you’re saving precious time during the week and there is no extra thinking involved.

Make sure you take into account days where you might be working late or getting home late. When you plan head you can mark those days down for dinner in the crockpot. That way when you get home your house smells amazing and you are eating your nutritious, planned, and compliant meal.

Here is a quick lunch idea…

On your prep day as you are cutting all of those veggies throw a handful of each into a pot. Cook a couple of pieces of chicken and scramble up some eggs and throw that in the pot with the veggies. Add water and a small amount of chicken broth (check the ingredients on those chicken broths!) and you just made yourself soup for the week for lunch. 🙂

I hope these tips were helpful to you- let’s Make It Happen!
-Coach Meagan

Six Week Sprint to Summer – Build Your Habits

We all have habits.

There are things we do, every time we do them.  We drive to work, put the toothpaste on the brush, and put the pillow under our head – the same way – every time.

When it comes to the way we eat we have built habits as well. We like certain foods in certain ways. We like to eat at certain times. We plan and prepare our food or we don’t. We have a set point at which we are full. We salt our food without tasting it first (guilty!) We may grab a glass of wine after dinner. We may eat dessert. These things are all habits.

Food has so much power over our lives. We have to eat to survive. But eating is also enjoyable. There are so many wonderful tastes, textures, colors and smells. The problem is when we let food overpower us and control us to the point our health suffers.

The good news is that habits can be built, and habits can be broken. Our Six Week Sprint to Summer is all about building habits that support good health. It is not deprivation. There are no calorie counts or restrictions.

There are replacements however.

We replace poor habits with better ones. We control our food, we don’t let it control us. We take one day at a time, doing specific things that will help us replace our poor nutrition habits with ones that will support our goals of losing fat, getting lean, and looking and feeling great.

Over the years we have been consistent with these habits. There is nothing magical here. We are making a conscious decision every meal to do what it takes to build good health habits. For those of you who have been with us awhile these will be familiar. Kinda goes along with the “Habits” theme, wouldn’t you say? 🙂

Take some time to click the links and read the articles that go along with each habit. These are from past challenges and will be a big help. Don’t just blindly follow. Knowing why you are doing something is an important part of building the habit.

Let’s get started!

Six Week Sprint To Summer Habits

Habit 1: Did I plan and/or prepare every meal I ate today?

• Create Your Plan
• Quick and Easy Meal Planning

Habit 2: Did I eat vegetables every time I ate today?

• Eat Your Veggies 1
• Eat Your Veggies 2

Habit 3: Did I eat lean, complete protein every time I ate today?

• Eat Your Protein 1
• Eat Your Protein 2

Habit 4: Did I eat healthy fats every time I ate today?

• Eat Healthy Fat 1

Habit 5: Did I drink only zero sugar beverages today? (Exception: post-training)

• Don’t Drink Your Calories

Habit 6: Did I avoid all added sugars when I ate today?

• Sugar. Sweet to the Lips, Killer on the Hips

Habit 7: Did I eat/drink complete lean protein within 1 hour after resistance training today? (n/a = not training day)

• Start Recovering – Right Now!

Six Week Sprint to Summer Resource Page

Dates to Remember:

May 10, 2014: Kickoff Meeting

May 19, 2104 : S3 2014 Starts

June 29, 2014:  S3 2014 Ends

Seminar Dates and Locations

Meal Planning and Prep
May 21, 2014
Get Fit NH Epsom
6:00pm to 7:30pm

Cheat Your Way Through Meal Prep
May 28, 2014
Get Fit NH Concord
5:30pm to 7:00pm

Summer Salad and Sides
June 4, 2014
Get Fit NH Epsom
6:00pm to 7:30pm

Success Checklist Due Dates

Checklist 1: June 3, 2014

Checklist 2: June 17, 2014

Checklist 3: July 1, 2014

Resources:

Please click a link to open or download…

Success Checklist – PDF Format

Success Checklist – Excel Version

Shopping List Part 1 – PDF Format

Shopping List Part 2 – PDF Format

Quick and Easy Meal Planning – PDF Format

S3 2014 Facebook Group

Six Week Sprint into Summer – S3 2014 is Coming!

You’ve asked for it, you got it!

We are calling this years “Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown” the Six Week Sprint into Summer, and it is going to be spectacular!

As is our custom, this challenge is going to be habit based, but you know there is going to be some stuff in there that is going to make you think and make you stretch, but most importantly it’s going to make you better.

Here’s some dates you need to know:

S3 Kickoff Meeting: Saturday May 10th

S3 Starts: Monday May 19th

S3 Ends: Sunday June 29

I am also excited to announce that Coach Nancy has committed to do at least three of her incredible seminars, covering topics like Menu Planning, Food Preparation “Cheats” and Summer Salads and Sides. These are can’t miss, so stay tuned for those dates.

We will be rolling out more info soon, so stay on the edge of your seats and get ready to…

Make It Happen!

Coach Dean

Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown Lives!

Mae Lynn absolutely proves that you can learn to be a “lean eater”. It might take a little time, but anything worth doing is worth sticking with. Learning to eat is no different than any other kind of learning. Repetition of the right things leads to mastery. One day at a time gets you from fries to fantastic!

“Just thought you would want to see that S3 has not fallen by the wayside around here. We’re getting ready to head over to Maine for Henry’s surf lesson. I’m having breakfast while packing our lunch.

I always used to pack for Henry due to allergies, but now it’s everyone! Here’s breakfast and lunch. The salad has romaine, spinach, leftover coconut chicken, fresh tomato, avocado, sunflower seeds and Coach Nancy’s salad dressing. Breakfast is the rest of the avocado so it doesn’t turn brown, more sunflower seeds, and Greek yogurt with a side of strawberries and cottage cheese.

It’s a long way from lobster rolls and sweet potato fries, huh? 😉

That’s what a year with you guys has done for me. Thank you.” – Mae Lynn

It’s Time To Clean Out Your Closet

You know the weather is getting nice and summer is almost here.  For many of us we have already dug out the lighter clothes and stored the winter ones, for a couple months at least.

Now might also be a good time to go through some of those clothes you have had stored for a while and try them on.

Why?

You might be pleasantly surprised!

Mae Lynn wrote this morning that she was going through her “summer” clothes and they didn’t fit – they are all too big. Now there is a nice surprise and a good problem to have! That’s a pretty good reason I would say. 🙂

Nancy and I were talking the other day if we had kept any of my pants from when I was at my fattest – size 46″ waist. I was pretty sure I didn’t, because mentally I knew I needed to get them out of the house and out of mind. There might be one pair back there, I just haven’t found it yet.

I actually think it is a good thing to donate those too loose clothes every time you need to buy new ones.

Why?

Because then there is no going back. If you put the weight back on you have to go get new clothes, and that gets expensive.

In fact every time you go down a size you  should invest in a new pair of jeans. Not the “relaxed” fit ones with the stretchy waist, but a pair that are just on the edge of comfortable.

I did that this weekend. Bought a pair of size 32″. In fact I am wearing them right now. And while the 34’s I was wearing made me feel pretty good about myself, these ones let me know I still have a bit of work to do – know what I mean?

It’s not good for me to get comfortable. I need to keep setting goals, or complacency sets in.

What about you?

Did S3 get you where you want to go? I know for me personally I reached some goals, but it is now spurring me on to some new ones. Constant and never ending improvement. Could be fast, could be slow, it just needs to be.

So celebrate your achievements, evaluate and plan to overcome your failures, perceived or real, and keep your eye on the prize.

And when you are out, go buy that pair of jeans.

Make It Happen!

Coach Dean

Enough Already! Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown Winners Here

The Buttercups, with Kai standing in for Carol!

679.2

I want you to mull that number in your head for a bit.

Because that is the number of pounds that were lost during 2013 Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown, and we don’t plan on ever seeing them again.

679.2

Sweet job everybody – keep on Making It Happen!

I want to also offer a huge thank-you to those companies that provided prizes for our winning team. Your generosity is much appreciated by us and the prize winners.

Here’s a list of the prize package our Top Team received.

• Nadine from Baked Downtown Cafe’ & Bakery: Gift card, t- shirt and assorted teas
• Susan from New Hampshire Motor Speedway:  Gift bags – hats, cooler, and 2 tickets to the July race
• Christen from Peace and Balance Body Therapies:  1 Hour Massage (and let it be noted that our good friend Amy over at Chichester Massage was in if an Epsom team had won)
• Heather from Nike: 2 Nike Sports Band and 3 ladies Nike running hats
• Mark from Hood Dairy: Product voucher coupons
• Get Fit NH: Concord Co-op $50 Gift Card to each winner & Team Designed Custom 2013 “Bragging Rights” Clothing

Shout Outs:

Just wanted to recognize some individual S3 participants as well. Everybody on this list lost at least 5% body mass over the 7 week period. Don’t get me wrong, we are proud of everyone who put forth the effort and changed their body. Had to cut it off somewhere! 🙂

(P.S. – Women DOMINATED the top of this list. Love It!)

Lori Boucher-Nichol    8.75%
Katie Jordan        8.73%
Barbara Olson        8.25%
Colleen Leung     7.80%
Greg Swain        7.08%
Laurie Rivet        6.91%
Millie Lafontaine    6.04%
Dawn Vosburgh        5.96%
Gretchen Wolfe        5.85%
Janine Roussean-Evans    5.65%
Martha Swasey        5.64%
Katie Bean        5.54%
Stacey Haggett        5.51%
Linda Bayrd        5.49%
Jere Smith        5.36%
Carol Hawkins        5.17%
Jack Dianis        5.11%
Matt Wolfe        5.07%
Doreen Mathison        5.06%
Kendra Frye       5.00%

And the Winner Is:

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. It was a very close competition, but in the end, there can be only one.

Congrats to Lori, Sue, Carol, Andrea and Colleen of Team Buttercups (as in “Suck It Up Buttercup”) for being the winners of the 2013 Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown. If you see them, please congratulate them on a job well done. They scored the most points and lost the highest percentage of body mass (A total of 51 pounds) during the transformation – WOW!

We all look forward to hearing from you ladies soon.

2013 S3 Top 10

The Buttercups        53.16
Katies Cuties        51.30
The D’Reem Team        48.95
S.W.A.T            48.21
5am and you        46.22
Flab-U-Loss        43.35
WJH            43.14
You don’t know Jack    42.33
NHMS            41.71
Flip Flop        41.71

S3 Results Are In: Cause and Effect!

Much thanks to Coaches Meagan and Nancy for compiling all the data we needed to see who actually won this thing!

And while I am not going to tell you until tomorrow (booooo!) I am going to share the results of my own number crunching.

You see it is very important to us to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of our training and nutrition strategies through data and evidence, not just ask you take our word for it.

The 2013 Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown gave us the opportunity to get a large sample of data on our clients compliance with S3 and the ensuing results.

Would it surprise you that the teams with the highest compliance lost the most body mass?

While it didn’t surprise me, I was very pleased with the confirmation.

We often talk that no matter how great the nutrition plan, you actually have to DO IT to see results. We know that the habits instilled in S3 lead to both short term and long term results and body composition change.

If and when you actually do them consistently.

Our benchmark is 90% -as in – keep the plan at least 90% of the time to see the greatest results. The less you do the plan, the slower your results. Kinda makes sense!

I hope the following chart excites you as much as it excited me.

The plan works, if you work the plan.

There is no hiding and there is no denying what you know to be true.

There is a big difference between knowing and doing.

We all had the same information, at the same time.

It’s what we did with that information that made the difference.

It was the consistent application of the “knowing” that led to better results.

So my challenge to you is to stop looking for “something else”.

Get off the internet looking for the latest fad, pill or shake.

Forget the pseudo-science and marketing hype.

You know what to do.

1. Eat regular meals. Find a schedule that works for you and do it. All the time.
2. Eat Complete, Lean Protein – every time you eat
3. Eat Your Veggies – every time you eat
4. Eat “Other Carbs” only after you train
5. Eat Healthy Fats Daily
6. Don’t Drink your Calories.
7. Eat Whole Foods whenever possible.

Now Keep Making It Happen!

Coach Dean