Review on 'Sustainable Fitness, Enabling a Plan for Your Lifelong Health' by Blair McHaney
Sustainable Fitness is not a workout plan. It’s a book that wants us to understand how
we ‘create’ a plan for lifelong health. It’s a book that wants us to see there is a process
involved in moving from the often short-term excitement and motivation for a workout,
to the long-term, ebb and flow of sustaining our health.
It offers ‘7 Perspectives for Sustainable Fitness’. Financial, Emotional, Motivational,
Social, Nutritional, Logistical, and Physical. It’s with the understanding that you may
or may not relate to each perspective, but that these are key elements to consider when
deciding whether or not your exercise plan will be ‘sustainable’. As you answer to each
of these elements you’ll be able to understand what it takes for YOU to stay committed to
your health.
So, if you’ve struggled with on-again, off again exercise, and you truly want more for
yourself, read Sustainable Fitness. In it you’ll find the tools, and the motivation, to create
your own Plan for Lifelong Health.
To download a free version of the book, visit; www.shapeupwenatchee.com
Darcy West, B.A., ACSM
6 lb. turkey breast with bones (with at least 2 cups of meat)
2 medium onions
3 stalks of celery
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
1/2 tsp. dried tarragon
1/2 tsp. salt
black pepper to taste
1/2 lb. pasta
1. Place turkey in a 6 quart pot, cover with water until 3/4 full.
2. Large dice the onion, slice the celery and add to the pot.
3. Simmer covered for about 2 1/2 hours.
4. Remove turkey from pot and cool the liquid. Once it's cooled skim off the fat.
5. While broth cools remove the meat from the bones and cut into pieces.
6. Add turkey back to the skimmed broth, along with the herbs and spices. Bring to a boil and add the pasta. Continue cooking on low boil for about 20 min. until pasta is done. Serve at once.
Each 1 cup serving has:
201 calories
2 g. of fat
33 g. of protein
11 g. of carbohydrates
141 mg. of sodium
Nothing like getting out of a rut by, willfully taking on difficult or disagreeable tasks that may be very uncomfortable, i.e. the definition of "glutton for punishment". Just as I told myself I would, I went to the Challenge Throwdown. Uh yea - OUCH! Okay, so it didn't really hurt but I was very thankful that there were options in the exercises that were low key. It was really nice that the gal next to me half my size also opted for some of the low key versions. Please do not be mistaken, the low key versions were not for grandma they were what I would consider the average person while the real routine was for the guy in the back that must have been jumping to the ceiling; I don't think he even broke a sweat!
To keep myself on track twelve, yes 1-2 hours later I was back in the gym (5:30 a.m.) for Hot Yoga. Oh boy. Again, I am a Glutton for Punishment! While the first time the room was 108-degrees it was a mild 90-degrees today - oh dear! My muscles were crying at this point from the throwndown but by gosh I was going to whip them back into shape! Again, a dang hot room and moves my body is not quite equipped for, but I made it through it!
I seem to be having serious mood swing with this weight thing. One day I am so excited to think that I have lost 14 pounds! YAHOO!! Then I look in the mirror at the gym and see something I am not proud of; I even try to stand right where the mirrors meet - then I look half my size. You know you have done it too!! This is not just a physical change that I am going through. As M&M (Merciless Mark) has clearly communicated the mind is just as important and seeing myself for what I am deep down and not for what I am in this temporary state is critical. I hadn't realized exactly what I signed up for when I started this challenge, but I am starting to realize the changes that are ahead are not temporary but life changing!
Livin, Lovin & Laughin
“Hi honey...I love you. Here, eat this. Get fat and diabetic too”
Speaking as a man, most of us do not think about the underlying messages inherent in giving our sweetheart flowers and chocolates for Valentines Day. Very few of us would ever consider vocalize these 2 sentiments, but flowers and 10 lbs of chocolates seem to be traditional Valentines Day gifts.
But then the question becomes, “If not those things, then what do I give My Love on this day commemorating the burial of a man who did something we don’t remember a really long time ago?”
Chocolate- I know I just said chocolates send the message “get fat” and you don’t want to say that. Think QUALITY not QUANTITY here. You would do better to spend $10 on a 4-pack of REALLY GOOD truffles that than on 4lbs of cheap nougat. The research says that someplace between bite number 3 and bite number 5 we lose the pleasure of taste. IF you are going to do something edible, do something that you will
CONSCIOUSLY savor rather than consume on autopilot.
A Plan- About 85% of people who go to the gym quit because they do not get the results they want. A little over 80% of people in gyms across America go to the gym without a plan, a clear idea of what they are after, or what it takes to get there. I’m not normally a gambling man, but I’d wager my kids college fund that those 2 statistics are connected. You can give your sweetheart an hour with a Personal Trainer where
he or she will get a body composition, a fitness assessment, and A PLAN (based on personal needs) to get them where they want to go. And it’s free (but we won’t tell if you don’t). You could even go one step better and give Personal Training Sessions where the professionals do everything except lift the weights.
Classes- Our GGX classes come with your membership, we DO offer some others that take fitness to the next level. Our Kinesis classes are small group, whole body, and overseen by a certified instructor. All you have to do is show up and sweat. In January we also opened the 9th Street Yoga studio. For those who are looking for a next level to their Yoga practice, or want to add a restorative discipline to an already effective workout routine, this is a cost effective option.
Workout Gear- One of the most common reasons given for NOT working out is not having clothes. Something as simple as a bag to keep exercise clothes in, comfortable exercise clothes, or even a small bag for toiletries will make getting to the gym THAT much more convenient. The easier you can make it to cultivate the habit of exercise, the more likely it is that your partner will workout.
All of these are suggestions to give the gift of health to your loved one. You can go with the flowers and truckloads of chocolate if you want. But guys, if you send the message that you WANT her to ignore her fitness, don’t be surprised when She asks, “Do these jeans make me look fat?”
I moved...AGAIN! This makes 5 moves in 2 years. Every time I do it, I’m reminded that my parents still live in the house that I grew up in. I noticed something else though: Every time I move, it gets easier. There is a little less to move.
Nobody LIKES moving, but I went through the routine of gathering all of my stuff together, paring down, packing up, moving from House A to House B. We still haven’t
put away all our stuff, but the new place is smaller and doesn’t have places for all of our stuff. At this point, our new place is just a roof over the top of a pile of boxes. We moved boxes that haven’t been unpacked since the Clinton administration. I have no idea what is in them.
Moving a household, and moving a human body are really very similar. Here is the REALLY over-simplified version. Every muscular contraction from a beating heart to a bench press runs on a chemical called Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP for short). ATP is the energy currency of the body. Think of it like cash. At any given time, you have enough of it to run your body for about 10 seconds.
If you move a lot, it will empty your bank account of all your cash and leave you needing more. This is where most people have a garage sale to raise some more dough. Of course, there is that awkward first step of deciding what you’re going to sell in the garage sale. The first stuff to go is the stuff that you use all the time so it never gets put away. The free-floating stuff that your daily life runs on. Some of it has to go. You know what it is. You know what it’s worth. If you get rid of it, you don’t have to pack it, and you have a little more cash to cover the moving expenses.
When you exercise your body will burn sugar (glucose) to generate more ATP. The first thing you burn is the Glucose floating around in your blood (creatively named Blood Glucose). You have enough here to run your body for about a day, but think about a marshmallow dropped in a fire. You can burn through all that sugar REALLY quick (like about 10 minutes).
It’s only after you’ve cleared out a bit of the free floating stuff, that you get to the spare tire that is inexplicably in the garage instead of the trunk of your car, and the saddlebags from the motorcycle that you sold 3 years ago. THIS is the fat. Fat is a wonderfully efficient energy storage molecule. But like all the crap you have stored in the garage, the more efficiently packed it is, the longer it takes to get it out and do something with it. Fat doesn’t burn quite so well. Imagine an equal sized lump of butter dropped in that
same fire.
When your Blood Glucose drops, your pancreas releases a hormone called Glucagon (think of it as “glucose-gone”). Glucagon releases fatty acids from stored fat, and about 15 minutes later, it is something you can burn. Fatty acids store about SIX TIMES the amount of energy as Carbohydrates. You store about the same amount of energy in 10 lbs of fat as in 67 lbs of glycogen. The good news is that while it takes about 15-20
minutes to start burning fat, it takes at least as long to stop too. For about 20 minutes after you stop exercising, you are still unpacking fat and turning it into sugar to be burned later.
There are 2 primary strategies for getting rid of fat. The first is to go fast, hard, and heavy; burn out the sugar, build the muscle, and let the muscle burn the fat all day long. The other is to go lower intensity for a really long time; think Marathon, or walk across America kind of long. Both are valid. Both are effective. The bottom line is that if you want to pare down and get rid of the spare tire or the saddlebags, you have to
move.
Chocolate Soufflé
This is a great one for guys who are making Valentines Dinner. It seems complicated, but if you follow the steps it is REALLY tough to screw up.
You will need…
Place 1 HEAT PROOF mixing bowl in the pot of water. This creates a Double Boiler.
Bring the water to a simmering boil.
Break chocolate into chunks and drop them into the Double Boiler to let them melt.
Grease the Ramekins or Oven Proof Bowls. (Some people like to also dust them with sugar of flour.)
Set them aside
In one mixing bowl beat the egg whites with 2 Tbsp Sugar and/or Cream of Tartar until hard peaks form. (about 3-4 minutes)
This is the body of your Soufflé.
Rinse off the beaters.
In the 3rd mixing bowl, combine the rest of the sugar, and egg yolks.
Beat for 5 minutes. (This is the mixture that will carry the flavor of your chocolate, so make sure that it is as smooth and evenly mixed as possible. 2 extra minutes here will be a BIG deal)
Take the melted chocolate off of the stove.
With the rubber spatula, add some of the yolk mix to the chocolate and stir.
When the yolk and chocolate are mixed, stir THIS combination into the remaining yolk mix.
Take about half of the beaten whites and hand stir it into the yolk/chocolate mix.
When they are gently mixed, add the yolk/chocolate/white mix to the remaining whites.
Scoop evenly into the Ramekins or Oven Proof Bowls.
Bake 25 min at 350. Serve immediately.
Bike class has long been a favorite of mine for cardio. I love everything about it – the music, the enthusiastic group, and the amazing instructors. More importantly I love being able to push myself harder than I thought possible and see myself getting stronger with every class. This past week during a bike class, I was once again shown how lucky we are to belong to such an amazing gym. The staff are always friendly and helpful and if you have a question about anything- just ask! I was in a bike class this past week when a newcomer decided to join us. I remember how nervous I was walking into my first bike class and could totally empathize with this person’s nerves. She immediately went up to the instructor and asked for help and she was instantaneously immersed into a unique group of friends. I loved watching others in the class give her tips on everything from how to set up her bike, what to expect throughout the class, and even getting her a towel. Throughout the class the people around her cheered her on and afterwards, reassured her that the first time is the toughest; and encouraged her to try it again. I left the class that night, not only feeling exhilarated from my work out – but also from the friendliness of those around me. These friendly faces keep the workouts fun, the environment accepting and encourage people to try something new. That night reminded me to smile throughout my own workouts and have the courage to try something new – who knows? Maybe I’ll finally try that Zumba class after all!
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