Motivation

Hello Fit Campers!
Here are some motivational quotes from athletes, actors, poets, and more! We hope you can keep these things in mind when you are feeling tired and weak. Everyone is doing so well and our turn outs for classes have been fantastic!

"The first wealth is health."-Ralph Waldo Emerson


"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill


"Eighty percent of success is showing up!" - Woody Allen


"Champions keep playing until they get it right." - Billie Jean King


"Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision." - Muhammad Ali


"If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end." - Julius Erving


"A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools." - Spanish Proverb


"Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness." -Earl of Derby


"Movement is medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states." -Carol Welch


"The human body was designed to walk, run or stop; it wasn't built for coasting." -Cullen Hightower


"While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us." -Benjamin Franklin


"The journey is the reward." - Chinese Proverb


"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!" -Muhammad Ali


Let's finish out fit camp with a bang! Keep up the awesome work everyone!

STANDINGS FOR WEEK #3

Hello FitCampers!

It is awesome to see how many of you particpating in all the group fitness classes and other classes as well! Keep on rolling! We have one more week to go.

Here are the standings:

Katie - 3.59%

Rachel S - 3.09%

Christina - 2.5%

Karla J. - 2.39%

Sherry M. - 2.31%

Kasey - 1.47%

Sarah -

Rachael L

Danielle

This competion is very close!! WOW!

If you have not weighed in - please try to weigh in this week!

Keep up the good work everyone!!

Ang

1/2 there!! Keeping the Motivation!

Weight loss motivation works if you have no fear in reaching your weight loss goals. The weight loss motivation here will help you gain discipline. Let's get your motivation for weight loss up to a level that will surprise you.

Fear prevents discipline, not only in regard to your personal goals, but also in exercise. Fear is responsible for the majority of would-be exercisers (meaning they would be an exerciser if they weren’t so scared!) If you don't exercise you can t strengthen your internal watchdog and in turn will always have a much harder time dealing with stress and negativity.

Too often we expect bad things will happen when we attempt to start something we really want to do. Good weight loss motivation will prevent this. Maybe you were cautiously optimistic (this is how positive thinkers refer to fear) about getting involved.

It's funny but you could have everyone rooting for you, and everything seems perfect. You can even have the best teacher in the world, but if you think of your fears during the execution of your plan or even before you start, you take the focus off the reward of your mission and you focus on the what - if I fail part.

Your weight loss motivation disappears then you successfully remove your discipline of staying on course.

This happens so often when it comes to weight loss. You may be all pumped up and excited about weight loss and maybe you finally decided to stop just talking about it and start doing it, but if you concentrate on the fear of not reaching your goal it will creep up on you and eventually overwhelm you and you know what that means - no weight loss motivation and you quit!!

What's the solution to keeping your weight loss and fitness motivation? Whenever you have a fear of something take all the negative aspects away from it; then all you have left is the positive! You then have no fear.

Sounds easy right? It's not. It takes guts to stay focused with outstanding weight loss motivation until you reach your weight loss goals.

Guts come from being fed up with something. Are you fed up? If you are, go for it and focus on the rewards of accomplishment, not the consequences of failure. If you have some type of fear regarding weight loss and fitness motivation, just do it and stay focused on the good.

There is so much good to focus on in weight loss & keep your weight loss and fitness motivation elevated.

Even if you're a million pounds overweight, and you feel you've just tried everything and nothing has worked, and your fear may be that you don't want to waste your time again or tell your friends about another diet or plan your trying, forget about it!

Forget about that negativity and just focus on weight loss motivation for the benefits of a stronger heart, breathing better, having more energy, and setting a good example for your kids or someone else that may see your efforts. Better than that, focus on the relief of stress and how much this will help your focus.

When thinking of your weight loss and fitness motivation & weight loss goals, remove all fears by:

1. Focusing on the good
2. Focusing on the objective
3. Focusing on the goal
4. Focusing on the solution
5. Focusing on your aim
6. Focusing on your destination

When you do, you'll see how quickly the fears disappear and you'll realize that you are retaining a high level of weight loss motivation.

Importance of Stretching

Hello Fit Campers! As you know we are coming to the end of our second week of Fit Camp, meaning we are half way to the finish line! Keep up the hard work and please do not hesitate to ask questions about any classes, exercises, or diet.

We all have been told how important stretching is but for some reason most of us still skip that step in our workout. Your workout should include stretching before and after your cardio and strength training program. When you're finishing up your workout and you're thinking "Oh I'm so tired, I don't need to stretch today"consider the benefits of stretching, such as increased circulation and flexibility!

Do not confuse stretching with your warm up, stretching "cold" muscles can lead to injury. Each muscle group should be stretched slowly and with control. Each stretch should be held for 15 to 30 seconds and should each be done 1 to 3 times.

Benefits of Stretching:

Stretching increases flexibility- daily stretching can improve your every day performance such as bending to tie your shoes, lifting a heavy box, or running up the steps at home or work. These things can become easier and less tiring with increased flexibility.

Stretching improves range of motion of your joints- good range of motion helps you maintain your balance which will in turn keep you less prone to falls and the related injuries to those falls.

Stretching improves circulation- stretching increases blood flow to your muscles and this can speed recovery after injuries.

Stretching can relieve stress- stretching releases tight, tense muscles that often come along with stress (which we all experience every day!)

Caution!

A common mistake when stretching is bouncing; do not bounce when you stretch! Bouncing can cause small tears in the muscle that can leave scar tissue as the muscle heals which tightens the muscle even further making you less flexible and more prone to pain.

Keep up the hard work as we enter the second week of Fit Camp! Happy stretching :)

AVOID WEIGHT GAIN AT WORK

It is easy to watch your scale rise to dangerous heights when you're busy with projects at work. After all, most jobs these days rarely require leaving the office (or the cubicle) or other strenuous manual labor. Many workplaces develop bad overeating habits: food takeouts/delivery, birthday parties, and team bonding sessions.

Here are some tips:

BE FRIENDS WITH THE WATER COOLER. You need to drink at least eight glasses of water every day. Hdration with water lets you maintain concentration, curbs fatigue and prevents cravings (especially for sweets!). Many people misinterpret thirst as hunger, leading us to grab a quick treat when in fact water is what we need. It is not good to wait for the time when you're hankering for water. It is advisable to gulp some water every few minutes.

TAKE SOME FRESH AIR. Instead of spending your breaks catching up on the latest gossip (which won't do you any good in terms of health), use them to talk a walk outside your workplace. If your beaks are too short to get out, even walking up and down the stairs would do you well. A 10 minute walk here, another there! you won't only get your blood circulation active, you will also feel freshened and stirred up from the fresh air and the energy by simply walking.

REST WELL. There are only 24 hours in a day, and while many of us try to do as much as we can in a day, it is not doing our health any good. While skimping on sleep may allow us to do more, we may not necessarily be doing them very well. Another loss of ZZZ ZZZ-skippers? They tend to gain more fat and faster. Various studies have demonstrated that those who get less than ideal hours of sleep are prone to grabbing unhealthy and fattening foods. Many of these are energy boosters like candy bars and chocolates.

SKIP THE VENDING MACHINE. Very few of the items sold in a regular vending machine are good for you ( and your waistline). To save yourself from the fat and the expense, do your groceries before going to your work and fill your desk with healthy choices of snacks. Try Graham crackers, lo-fat granola bars, almonds and fruits are all good items to start with.

RULE YOUR STOMACH WITH YOUR HEAD. There is no denying that stress is plaguing almost all of us. In the workplace, stress is magnified to several degrees. be prepared for whatever challenges you might face at work. Keep in mind that whatever comes, you can face it with balanced and healthy diet without resorting to "emotional eating". If you want to be strict with your diet and health , you may want to keep a food journal to keep an eye on your eating patterns.

If you discover that you eat based on your current emotion or mood, you can take the necessary actions to prevent yourself from eating unhealthy foods when you feel the same emotion in the future.

Keep up the great work everyone! I see everyone has lost weight this week!
Happy days!!

Breakfast of Champions!

Congratulations to everyone for making it through the first week of Fit Camp! Everyone is doing so awesome and the turn out we had for all the classes this week was great! Let's keep it up for the weeks to come :)


Many people ask "why is eating breakfast so important?" Well first, breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it boosts your metabolism, increases your attention span, gives you more energy, and increases your sense of well-being. Eating breakfast is extremely important for weight loss and management because you curb your hunger that increases over the 7-10 hours that you were sleeping for. You get no snack or meal in those hours so your blood glucose level goes down. Eating breakfast "breaks the fast" so you don't binge eat later in the day. One third of your day's calories should be in your breakfast!





People are quick to have a list of reasons why they don't eat breakfast, for example:





"I don't like breakfast foods"- You don't always have to have a breakfast food, eating leftovers or anything healthy is fine!





"I don't have enough time in the morning"- Making time to eat in the morning is making time to be healthy! Grab something for the road, a piece of fruit, make toast and take it on the road!





"I am not hungry in the morning"- start slow, take one piece of fruit in the mornings, soon enough you will begin to get hungry in the morning and you can add to your breakfast.





When you wake up in the morning, your sugar level is at its lowest point in the day and that is the basic fuel for the brain and central nervous system. A good breakfast will keep you from being tired and irritable.





Here are some excellent breakfast choices:




whole grain toast or bagel with a fruit spread or peanut butter


hot cereal- oatmeal


high fiber cereal (wheat chex, etc.)


fruit

yogurt


whole grain waffles


breakfast smoothie





Try this "Good-for-you Granola" Recipe at:


http://www.bellybytes.com/recipe/breakfast/breakfast02.html








Keep up the hard work!! See you all next week :)

HOW TO FIND MOTIVATION TO LOSE WEIGHT

Hello FitCampers!

It was so nice to see all of you Tuesday at the Kick Off! Everyone looked like they are ready to Rock and Roll!
Also I had a great turn out for the Group Fitness Class last night! Keep up the good work!

Here are a few suggestions to keep yourself motivated to Lose Weight:

1.) Visualize the success.

In order NOT to quit, think about what is waiting for you when you reach your goal. Think how well you will feel, how others will admire you , how you will improve your health, what small size clothes you will be able to shop for.

2.) Find a passion or hobby.

When you set your goal, refocus your mind from snacking to other things. Do not think about food constantly, it only encourages you to break the rules, and irritates you. Try to find a passion, a hobby, which will occupy your thoughts. The best way is to find a hobby away from the kitchen.

3.) Start with small changes.

If your eating habits require a number of radical changes, do not make them all at once, because you will get discouraged. Any modifications to your current menu should be implemented slowly.

4.) Reward the results.

The prize should be a pleasant bubble bath, good sleep, new clothes, new pair of running shoes and NOT chocolate or other snack.

5.) Convince yourself it is worth the trouble.

Remind yourself how much better you will be when you get to your target weight/size.

6.) Get used to new lifestyle and diet.

Changing eating habit is often associated with changes that seem impossible to implement. The healthy foods do not always have to taste bad. There are a number foods which are delicious, for example: cereals, nuts, bran with dried fruit, Greek yogurt, whole grains.

7.) Find someone who is trying to lose weight and make a lifestyle change and do this together.

Support each other and share your successes and failures.

8.) List the reasons why you decided to lose weight.

For example: to feel better, to be healthier, to have more energy........

Now it is time to enforce these rules!!