You Download We Donate, and a New PPW Kitchen Seminar

Breakfast was served at 9:00 last Saturday in Concord for 20 awesome Get Fit NH clients!

What did the rest of you eat? I missed seeing you! 🙂

For those of you who weren’t able to make it I going to take care of you, hang on just a minute!

Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown Week 2 Update.

I’ve heard how so many of you succeeded with the challenge of eating 4-5 times each day – well done!

But hold onto your hat, because now we are refining how those 4-5 meals will look.

How?

Well this week we are adding lean protein to each meal, get all the details on in this article.

And to help you out even more with menu planning and prepping, The PPW Kitchen will soon make another appearance, so mark your calendar!

Meal Management To the Rescue

On Saturday, May 4th at Get Fit NH Epsom you’ll learn how to easily pull mealtime together for your family. Join us from 9:00am to 10:30 and you’ll walk away with:

• A week’s worth of dinner meal plans plus the ability to expand that to a whole month
• A cheat sheet for meal preparation
• 14 ways to make snacks easy.

How cool is that?

We are going to do something really special for this workshop. This workshop we normally charge for, but this time we are going to slash the cost and donate all proceeds to “The Hike for Mike” and help cure Cystic Fibrosis.

This is one of our most fun workshops, so get some more great knowledge bombs from Coach Nancy and support one of our own!

Meal Management To The Rescue
Get Fit NH Bootcamp Epsom
Saturday May 4th, 2013
9:00am to 10:30am
Cost: Minimum $5 donation at the door – Now THAT is a steal! 🙂

Bonus! Download “The PPW Breakfast Kitchen” Recipe Book, which was featured in last weekends seminar, and for every copy downloaded we will donate $1 to “The Hike for Mike” and CFF.

Make It Happen!

S3 2013 Habit 3: Eat Vegetable With Each Eating Opportunity

Why Vegetables?

“Eating higher levels of veggies and fruits are associated with a lower incidence of:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Colon, prostate, cervical, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, thyroid, and breast cancer
• High blood cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Type 2 diabetes
• Obesity
• Stroke
• Osteoporosis
• and a lot more that aren’t on this list…” – Dr. John Berardi
  

There is no magic pill, potion, or lotion that is going to do all that, PLUS you get to try an amazing variety of incredible tastes from all over the world – right from your very own kitchen!

Did You Know? Vegetables (and fruits) provide an alkaline load to the blood. Both proteins and grains present acid loads. Too much acid can cause loss of bone strength and muscle mass – not cool. Osteoporosis is not just about calcium. Stay balanced by getting enough veggies.

The Habit

Our goal in week 3 is to get at least 2 servings of vegetables every time we eat. 1 counts, but at least 2 is way gooder! 🙂

What’s a serving?

• 1/2 cup raw chopped veggies
• 1 cup raw leafy vegetables

Here’s are some other (non-measuring cup) examples:

• 5 broccoli florets
• 10 baby carrots
• 1 tomato
• 4 slices of onion
• 1 cup of leafy greens (spring mix)
• 15 cherry tomatoes
• 0.5 bell pepper
• 1 cup of spinach

“But” you whine “I don’t like any of those!”

Lucky for you there are hundreds of vegetables in this great big wide world. Check out this list.

A Big Bonus

And there is even more good news.

Filling up on those cancer fighting, free radical busting, vitamin and fiber packed veggies help you stay full longer.

Check this cool PN knowledge bomb out:

Did you catch that?

Eating high calorie foods actually makes you hungrier, sooner. And what do you grab? More high calorie foods. Getting those veggies in helps stop the cravings and the binges. Win-Win!

How to keep your score chart in week 3

Every time you eat a meal that contains a protein and a veggie, you get a check. Do that at least 4x in one day and you score your daily point. Simple as that!

Let us know if you have any questions, then keep on Making It Happen!

Suprise Seminar Series w/ Coach Nancy This Saturday – The Breakfast Kitchen

This just in!

The amazing Coach Nancy (3-time Best Fitness Instructor, just saying) is coming to Get Fit NH Concord this Saturday, April 20, 2013 to give us the lowdown on all the amazing choices we have to eat a great breakfast that is S3 compliant, is great for your body, and just tastes great!

Probably the numero uno question we get is what to eat for breakfast. Well now is your chance to find out!

Join us from 9:00am to 10:30 and Coach Nancy will show you there is much more to breakfast than you think. She even promises to give you at least 12 complete breakfast ideas that will keep your taste buds happy!

I know it is short notice – but you are worth all the extra effort. 🙂

See you Saturday!

S3 Seminar Series – The Breakfast Kitchen
Get Fit NH Bootcamp Concord
Saturday April 20, 2013
9:00am to 10:30am

S3 2013 Habit 2: Eat Lean, Protein Dense Foods with Each Meal

Week 2’s habit is focused on getting your body what it needs to manufacture enzymes, hormones, and antibodies, replace worn out cells and build new cells. Without it the machine can’t operate at full capacity.

Protein.

The team over at Precision Nutrition has done a great job telling us what protein is and why it is so important to eat. You can’t live without it, really! Read “All About Protein” Here.

There are so many more choices out there than just chicken and fish.

Have you checked out the PPW3 shopping list on our sister site ThePPWKitchen.com yet?

There are Forty-Two different protein sources on that list alone – 42!

How Much Protein?

A good rule of thumb is this: Look at the palm of your hand. If you are a woman, your portion per meal should be about the size of your hand. This will be between 20 and 30 grams. Men, double that portion per meal, or 40-60 grams. The fact is that most of the time you are not going to want to get the food scale out every time you sit down to eat (although that is  great idea for a week or two until you get good at eyeballing portions), and the palm method is easy and portable! 🙂

Here are just a few examples of lean protein sources. The amounts listed will provide approximately 20-30 grams of quality protein, which is what we would consider a women’s portion.  Guys, do a little multiplying and double it.

High quality protein.
3-4 oz of cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish
1 cup of cooked seafood
4-5 egg whites
2-3 large eggs
6 oz. cottage cheese
6 oz. of plain greek yogurt (1 container)
2 oz of part skim cheese
1 scoop of protein powder
1 cup cooked lentils or beans
3-4 oz of tempeh or tofu
1 small veggie burger

Now it can be noted that some of these foods, particularly the dairy, have some carbohydrates as well, which is why we talk about protein dense foods.

Let me give you an example.

We all love peanut butter, but is peanut butter a good source of protein?

Let’s look at peanut butter from a well known store – Trader Joe’s. I actually love Trader Joe’s peanut butter.

Peanuts and Salt. That’s it.

And if I look at the nutrition label (you do, right?) you will see that 2 Tablespoons, or 1 serving, has 8 grams of protein. Not TOO bad you might be thinking.

But the % of protein in Peanut Butter is actually quite low, in this case around 17% of total calories. (Hint – it’s mostly fat)

Make sense?

Here are other “protein sources” that you’ll want to avoid:

Bacon
Lunch Meats
Sausages
Pepperoni
Protein in “fast food” restaurant meals (chinese take out, etc.)

These are low quality proteins, most of which are high in fat, sodium, and sugar, contain nitrates and a lot of other nasty preservatives.

So how do you score your daily point starting in Week 2 (Monday April 22)?

By doing S3 Habit 1 and 2
S3 Habit 1: Eat 4-5 meals each day
S3 Habit 2: Eat lean protein with all those meals

Here’s a handy dandy chart to help you get pointed in the right direction:

Quality Protein Fibrous Carbs Compliments

The possibilities are endless, so get out of the drive through, put on that Chef’s hat and Make It Happen!

S3 2013 – Let’s Get In The Habit

We are gearing up for Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown 2013 and we are wicked excited about seeing all the great things you are going to do.

If you have been training at Get Fit NH or a reader of our “stuff”, you know that we are all about building nutrition habits that will enable us to achieve and maintain a lean, high performance body – for a lifetime.

We base a large part of our work on Dr. John Berardi and his team over at Precision Nutrition. There are two (at least) reasons we do that. The first is that these are the same exact principles that allowed me (Coach Dean) to lose over 80 pounds and keep it off for many years. The second is because of my success and the success I saw in others using the system that I sought what is recognized within the industry as the best (and I might add hardest to earn) Nutrition Coaching credential for fitness professionals. I believe it is the best, and the PN team is always on the cutting edge of nutritional science and getting better.

So let’s get started!

Habit 1 is very straightforward.

Eat 4-5 meals per day.

At this point it doesn’t matter what, when, how or why.

Every time you eat, mark an “X” on your success checklist. If at the end of the day you have eaten at least 4 times, give yourself a point.

Pretty simple, eh?

You see we know how busy life is, and we know that it can be a real struggle to eat consistently. Skipping meals on a consistent rate is not cool for many reasons. You don’t get enough nutrients, your blood sugar can go wild, your metabolic rate is thought to slow down – all sorts of things that make achieving and maintaining a lean and healthy body nigh near impossible.

Look I have absolutely no objections if you want to start implementing some or all of the other habits too.

But don’t complicate things.

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
• Recovery Drink

That’s four feeding opportunities – check!

Just eat.

Here’s an example

Bodyfat Rules

Actually you can take the title of this post two ways:

1) Bodyfat Rules: The specific guidelines necessary to lose body fat.

2) Bodyfat RULES – as in, radical dude – losing body fat is the way to go!

It’s really the second I want to focus on in this particular article, because I want you to SEE what a dramatic difference losing body fat makes, and why we don’t just focus on what the scale tells us. (Hint – the scale is a liar)

Plus we will be going over specific strategies for losing bodyfat at our S3 Kickoff Meetings.

“Losing weight” is almost never the primary goal, unless maybe you are cutting for a wrestling match. If not, we need to focus on keeping all that calorie burning lean muscle tissue and getting rid of the excess fat.

As my friend Chris Mohr said “If it ain’t muscle, it’s just baggage.”

You can (and should) read all about that in an article I wrote awhile back called Lean, Toned or Muscle? to get the lowdown on how we keep the muscle and lose the fat. (We called it the “Madeline” plan – you’ll have to check out the article to find out why) 🙂

Helen from the 8:30 shot me an article with some pics that I think are very helpful because it shows us what different levels of bodyfat look like on the human body. You can be 130 pounds and have 18% bodyfat, and you can be 130 pounds and have 30% bodyfat, and you will look (and feel) very different.

Check out the article and accompanying pics here: Body Fat Percentage Pictures

Coach Perry has done an outstanding job of putting it all together, so I don’t need to reinvent the wheel here.

The cool thing about getting your bodyfat assessed regularly is that it gives us an “inside” view of what is really going on inside of you.

Am I losing fat or gaining fat?

Am I losing muscle or gaining muscle?

This is critical because it lets us make an outcome based decision. If what you are doing works we stick with it, if it is not, we come up with a plan to adjust.

We offer bodyfat testing to our clients as part of your training package, so if you haven’t taken advantage, you can setup an appointment here, and we will also be doing them as part of S3.

So check out that article above and set a target for where you want to be.

24%

20%

16%

Less?

It’s ultimately up to you, but you have to MAKE It Happen.

 S3 is a great way to get started, so get on a team today!

Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown ’13 – Prepare To Win!

The anticipation has been building and the time is almost here.

Are you ready for S3 2013? Well it’s time to get ready, because it’s coming, and it’s gonna be good!

We have had a TON of questions surrounding the details of this years transformation contest, and we have been working hard to get the pieces in place. As we do every year, we are changing things up a bit to keep you on your toes, have a ton of fun, and get some great results.

So here’s what you need to know now as we get closer.

S3 will be 7 weeks long, introducing and focusing (or re-focusing for many of you) on 1 habit per week.

We will be competing in teams of 3-5, with the goal being every team having 4 members. We have already had some great feedback on this, and we are looking forward to seeing y’all come together as a team, support each other and keep each other accountable. You can put together your own team, and we will also be helping get you on a team if you need our assistance getting one together. Be thinking about that team name!

Each team will have a team captain who is responsible for collecting success checklists, tracking weekly success checklists and submitting points on a weekly basis. Should only take 5-10 minutes a week.

Each team member will have their beginning and ending body composition percentage taken and recorded. It’s a simple 1-point ultrasound on your bicep that takes about 2 minutes – cheesy easy! There are two primary reasons that we are doing body comps in this years contest. First, we want you to see what focusing on good nutrition habits on a consistent basis will do for you. Secondly, and perhaps more important is that if you are consistently keeping good nutrition habits and we are not seeing any body composition changes in the right direction, we need to find out why. That may require medical intervention and testing, and I am sure you want to know that too, right?

Each subsequent week another habit will be introduced, and you will then be responsible for that habit and all previous habits. If that sounds like last year, that is because the principles of good nutrition have not changed in the last year, and because we know that building good habits is the key to successfully losing body fat and keeping it off, S3 2013 once is again is based on building good habits.

Once again we will be providing you the tools, resources and education you need to be successful. It is up to you to put it into action, and that’s where we know your team will pick you up and keep you moving in the right direction.

Resource Toolbox

http://ThePPWKitchen.com is where you will find tasty recipes that will keep your taste buds happy and keep you on the right track.

The S3 2013 Private Facebook group is where you can ask your questions, talk a little trash, and post your favorite PPW meal pics. You can also download our shopping list and copies of the success checklist and Captain’s scoresheet. Click here for an invite.

We will also be holding two kickoff meetings where you can get your questions answered and your initial body comp taken care of.

So What’s Next?

On April 1st there will be signup sheets in the gyms. You can start putting together your team now and start filling out the roster on that date. No worries if you don’t have a team, we’ll make that happen!

We are really looking forward to seeing you guys crank the awesome results! As always if you have any questions please ask them in the comment box below. No doubt someone else has the same question, so help ’em out!

Dates to remember:

S3 2013 Signup Starts
Monday April 1, 2013

S3 2013 Kickoff Meeting Concord
Tuesday April 9th, 7:00pm
Q&A, Body Composition Clinic

S3 2013 Kickoff Meeting Epsom
Wednesday April 10, 6:00pm
Q&A, Body Composition Clinic

S3 2013 Signup Deadline
Friday April 12, 2013
All initial body comps due

S3 2013 Begins
Monday April 15, 2013

S3 2013 Finale
Friday May 31, 2013
All final body comps and points due

Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown ’13

If you think you know S3 – think again…

It’s coming for you, are you ready?