Shop Smart

You signed up for boot camp and have made the commitment to give it your all every day. But is that enough? Some of you might think that is a crazy question. Of course that is enough, right? Well, maybe not. Getting in shape and being healthy takes more then just exercise. Yes, you have made the first step in the right direction. You have signed up for a hardcore program that is going to kick your butt! Now it’s time to learn how to change your eating so that you get the most out of boot camp.

If you don’t have healthy and nutritious foods at home, it is going to be easier to slip up and “cheat.” That is why this article “Healthy Eating Begins at the Supermarket” makes sense. Think about it. If you are at the store and you are buying Twinkies and Oreos, then obviously when you get home, you are not going to have healthy foods to eat. But if you make the right choices while you are shopping, eating healthy will become a natural occurrence. If you surround yourself with the “right” foods, you won’t even have to think about what to eat.

So here are a few tips from this article that we thought were particularly important. One of the most important tips for healthy eating is to shop the perimeter of the store. The perimeter of the store is where you find all of the fresh foods. Your fruits, veggies, meats and seafood are all around the outside of the store. Are there exceptions to this rule? Yes, canned tomatoes are great to use while cooking, as are frozen veggies, but in general you can avoid the majority of the aisles in a grocery store.

Another great tip is to shop with a list. Plan out your meals and snacks for a few days and write down what you need. Shopping with a list will make you focus on the foods you really need and not the foods that you want. Making a list also cuts down the time you spend at the grocery store and can help save money since you won’t be buying all the unnecessary foods.

We hear a lot from our campers (especially the single ones) that they don’t like to cook at home because the food goes to waste. If you buy your fruits and vegetables a few days before they are ripe, there is less chance of them going bad. Then once you cook the foods, split the meal out into individual Tupperware containers. You can freeze these containers and have meals for the future when you don’t have time to cook.

When you are looking through the produce section, focus on the fruits and vegetables that are in season. Foods that are in season will often cost less and will always taste better. So do yourself a favor and stick to in season fruits and veggies.

There are a lot of other tips in this article. So check it out here. For our veteran campers, we know you have heard a lot of these tips before in one way or another. What changes did you make to your shopping habits that have helped you the most?

"Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin" - ...Sans Proper Diet!

TIME Magazine recently published a very controversial article on the effects of exercise on weight loss.

The article was called “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin” (to read the article in full: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857-1,00.html)

Not exactly a sweeping promotion for fitness!

Though there were a lot of things within the article that I found misleading or flat out incorrect, the article does bring to light some very important concepts that are critical for the general population to understand:

1.) Exercise WILL make you hungrier

There is no question here. Exercise, especially intensive exercise, ramps up metabolism and our body’s natural response to energy expenditure (calories burnt from activity) is to increase energy consumption (food intake).
However, being hungrier from exercise is not the culprit- choosing the wrong type of food following exercise is!

In other words, if our diets focus on lots of lean protein, healthy fats, and high-fiber fruits and veggies every 2-4 hours, then we will be able to squash our exercise-induced hunger and build muscle and burn fat from exercise like we intend to. These foods are proven to promote optimal health, performance, and body composition.

However, if you are are a carb addict (think lots of refined grains and sugars), exercise will only make you crave more carbs leading to intense feelings of insatiability throughout the day due to unstable blood sugar levels. Make no mistake about it- in this case, exercise will not only cause you to NOT lose weight, but most likely will cause weight gain.

Here’s the line we tell most people who come to us to lose weight for them to understand they key to the success they crave:

“If you want to bulk up, add size, and gain weight, be sure to eat plenty of starches and sugars. But if you want to be lean and muscular, swap the starches and sugars for high fiber fruits and vegetables, with a special emphasis on green veggies.”

It’s really that simple, which brings us to point #2…

2.) Exercise sans proper nutrition WILL NOT cause significant weight loss

Nutrition is without a doubt 80-90+% of the equation when it comes to weight management. Hormones govern fat loss and both exercise and nutrition impact your body’s hormone levels- positively or negatively depending on what type of exercise and diet plan you follow.

However, you can never wipe out poor nutritional habits with exercise- NEVER! In terms of diet, the hormone we must be most concerned about is insulin, a storage hormone that’s released in large amounts when consuming refined starches and sugars.

Not matter how hard you workout, if you are releasing insulin through the day with a high carb diet, you will be helpless to its fat-storing effects.

On the other hand, lean proteins, healthy fats, and high-fiber fruits and veggies do not significantly impact your insulin levels thus allowing you to preferentially burn fat and build muscle in conjunction with the right exercise plan, which brings me to point#3…

3.) Not all exercise is created equal

The aforementioned article failed to distinguish between different forms of exercise. It misleadingly uses the word “exercise” to refer to aerobic activity or any form of exercise of low to moderate intensity.

Well, we already know that aerobic training has zero effect on fat loss over dieting alone- many studies support this.

So this article should not be using aerobics as the marker for “exercise” and it’s impact on weight loss… it’s like taking a dull knife to a gun fight!

Furthermore, we know that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) burns 9x more fat than ordinary exercise (aerobic training) and actually builds lean muscle and elevates metabolism for up to 24-48 post-workout (please reference our most recent blog posts for a ton of interval workouts that fit the bill here)

In conclusion, study after study proves that when it comes to exercise for fat loss:

CARDIO SUCKS AND INTERVALS ROCK!

So this TIME magazine article missed the ball on the big picture here: When it comes to being lean, muscular, and healthy, the key is an integrated and research based diet AND exercise regimen- exercise alone simply doesn’t cut it!


PS- What are your thoughts about this article? Does this hurt or help the weight loss cause? Please share your mind by making a comment to this blog post below, thanks!

Locally Grown/Raised...Grassfed...These Things Just Taste Better?!

If you were in Denver this weekend, you know that Saturday morning was an amazing 70 something degrees, sunny, idyllic. The perfect kind of day to be outside, for sure. Some bootcampers may have headed on over to the Local Farmer’s Market to do some research...and of course buy a few items not currently available in our garden;-) There were vendors hocking their sauces, veggies, meats, pottery – Some vendors may have been demonstrating a culinary cooking utensils, etc. There is nothing quite like getting out and going to see what’s local and in season – with the "people watching" which provids added entertainment.

Anyhoo, onto the point of this blog. The place was hopping at 9am, with vendors passing out samples of homemade bacon, locally grown organic tomatoes, and of course the bread people were there, with the longest line, passing out their samples too.

Why are we such proponents of grass fed meats? Well, in case you don’t remember, check out these links: Grassfed basics, you are what your animals eat, choose grassfed! And YES, we are realists, and know darn well it’s not always available or accessible or even affordable to go grassfed, in which case just do the best you can.

Now the BEST part?

If you have not heard the buzz on the street about the incredible new fruits and veggie mart let us be the first. It's called Blazer Street market, located at 15550 E. 6th Avenue, Aurora CO 80011. Located off of 6th and Chambers in the old Cub Foods store. One bootcamper states, "I was able to purchase 27 of our Fathers most divine earthly pleasures for under $25.00: The juiciest of juicy heart shape black cherries only $.99 a pound...gtfoh!!! 3 pink lady apples for $1.00, WHAT! And 2 bunches of spinach for $1.00, mustard greens for $.69 a bundle....SHUT UP! So check it out my fine friends in fitness. It's only open from Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 8pm-it's what's up!!!"

Next weekend we strongly encourage you to go check out these Farmer's Markets - the assortment of locally grown veggies they have available this time of year is fantastic (that is of course if you aren't harvesting such things from your own garden source!)...

PS - There are markets all over the metro Denver area. (i.e. near Cherry Creek Mall, Tiffany Plaza Parking Lot.) If you know of more locations, list them in the comments section of the blog for all to enjoy!

How To Color Code Your Menu

There you are at the food market, trying to put together a healthy diet for a week, which requires some forethought about what you'll be in the mood for a few days from now. It also has you thinking about how much of something you might need to get the daily nutrition requirements.

The good news is that it doesn't have to be that difficult. The HEALTHY foods you eat every day - fruits and veggies, meats and meat substitutes, dairy products and good grains - all contain vital nutrients that contribute to a healthy diet. And, some - particularly, those deeply colored fruits and veggies - are considered "superstars" in this area. In fact, your best bet is to think color!

The natural color of food is a reliable indicator of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients it supplies. Here's a quick snippit based on color:

Green - Those dark green veggies you eat like broccoli, spinach and sugar snap peas are high in vitamin C.

Red, yellow, orange - Fruits and vegetables of these colors, such as carrots, sweet peppers and sweet potatoes, are high in beta carotene or Vitamin A, and they can also be rich in vitamin C.

White - White fruits and veggies, like mushrooms, potatoes and bananas, supply B vitamins and many minerals. White dairy products - milk, yogurt and cheese - provide ample amounts of calcium (and are usually fortified with vitamin D).

Purple - Purple or purplish-blue foods, like grapes and blueberries, are best known for their anti-cancer and heart-helping antioxidants. And, like most other fruits and veggies, they're also high in vitamin C and fiber.

Brown - Brown foods in the form of nuts, seeds and grains supply E and B vitamins, which include folic acid. Brown and white foods like meat, fish, poultry, tofu and legumes are stand out sources of proteins and minerals like iron and zinc.

So, the more colors you toss into your basket, the better chance you have of meeting all of your nutritional needs. And remember that you don't have to meet the daily requirement for every single nutrient every single day.

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Montclair/Lowry - Baseball Game Results

Team A - 10

Team B - 10

Looks like we're in for a rematch!

Nice effort everyone.