National Nurition Month

So, March is National Nutrition Month according to the American Dietary Association. It was started as a way for people to focus on healthy eating habits. An easy way to crank up your nutrition is to eat more fruits and veggies.

Just recently I discovered a really easy way to not only increase my intake of fruits and veggies but also to increase my variety. I just started a weekly service from T.D. Willey farms (a local organic farm in Madera) that packages fresh organic produce and drops them off at various pick-up locations around town.

So now every week all I have to do to get fresh produce is to go down to my local pick-up station which is near my house and pick up my bag of fruits/ veggies. Every week the bag is different and filled with fresh and seasonal produce. This is great because it gives me a fantastic variety of foods that I may not otherwise pick from the grocery store. This week I got apples, tangerines, spinach, leeks, rutabaga, and carrots.

Another nice feature of this service is that they provide a list of recipes for the produce they package that week. So far every recipe I've tried has been delicious.

I definitely recommend this service to add some variety and extra nutrition to you diet.

Look them up online at http://www.tdwilleyfarms.com/

A similar service is http://farmerandthedale.com/

Tour of California in Clovis

The Tour of California is only a few days away starting on Sunday Feb. 15th in Sacramento, and will be rolling into Clovis next week on the 18th.







The TOC is perhaps the largest and most succesful road race in the United States and brings in some of the most succesful riders in the world. The race takes place Feb 14-22 and covers around 750 miles while going through 16 host cities.




The race this year will have an exceptional group of riders including; Lance Armstrong (Astana), Levi Leipheimer (Astana), Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing), Floyd Landis (OUCH), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Scott Nydam (Team BMC) plus many others.








Stage Four on the 18th is the Modesto- Clovis stage. Starting at Modesto's
City Hall near the intersection of N St. and 18th St. and finishing in Old Town Clovis near the intersection of Bullard Ave. and Pollasky Ave. You can see a map of the stage here: http://www.tourofcalifornia-clovis.com/docs/localMap.pdf.



The racers will be entering Fresno from the north at Friant and Willow Ave. They will be heading down Willow Ave until Copper Ave where they will head east. They go east on Copper Ave until Villa Ave and they turn south. From Villa Ave. they turn east on Shepherd Ave, and then south on Clovis Ave, where they will be racing right next to my house. They take Clovis Ave all the way into Old Town. Here is a map of the Clovis Finishing Stage: http://www.tourofcalifornia-clovis.com/docs/clovisFinishMap.pdf.

The race should be a lot of fun, Old Town is planning on having some events that day taking place along Woodward and Pollasky. If you're unable to make it to the finish line try to catch it on t.v.

The race will be broadcast live starting on February 7 with the Preview Show at 2PM PSTon the Versus Network (Comcast – Channel 38,DIRECTV – Channel 603, DISH - Channel 151). With races being as follows;
Saturday, Feb. 14 - Sacramento2PM PST (1 hour Preview, 1 hour Live)
Sunday, Feb. 15 - Davis to Santa Rosa3PM PST (Live)
Monday, Feb. 16 - Sausalito to Santa Cruz9:30AM PST (Live)8PM PST (Recap)
Tuesday, Feb. 17 - San Jose to Modesto2PM PST (Live)8PM PST (Recap)
Wednesday, Feb. 18 - Merced to Clovis1PM PST (Live)8PM PST (Recap)
Thursday, Feb. 19 - Visalia to Paso Robles1PM PST (Live)8PM PST (Recap)
Friday, Feb. 20 - Solvang1PM PST (Live)8PM PST (Recap)
Saturday, Feb. 21 - Santa Clarita to Pasadena2PM PST (Live)
Sunday, Feb. 22 - Rancho Bernardo to Escondido2PM PST (Live)

Other Sources of information;
http://www.tourofcalifornia-clovis.com/
http://bicycling.com/blogs/tourofcalifornia/
http://velonews.com/index.html
http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

The city of Clovis has a page of locations to best view the race as it comes through town; http://www.tourofcalifornia-clovis.com/docs/viewingLocations.pdf

Looking For a Fun Way to Get in Shape for 2009

Try giving an outdoor fitness class a try. Jon and I have started a class in Clovis with several times and locations available. We, of course are certified, experienced trainers with degrees in Exercise Science and will lead you through fun and challenging workouts lasting roughly one hour.

Super Fat Loss

When most people think of fat loss, their minds immediately turn to steady state aerobic workouts. Today I'm going to teach you a method of stripping away unwanted fat, The Tabata Method. Dr. Tabata is a Japanese researcher that authored a study in 1996 in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise that described the benefits of high-intensity intermittent training. The participants in his study showed fantastic results; in 6 weeks of testing, Dr. Tabata noted a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity in his subjects, along with a 14% increase in their ability to consume oxygen (V02Max). The interesting thing about this way of exercising is that it can be performed in only four minutes! How hard can four minutes be... extremely! What you do is pick an exercise, try to pick one that uses the greatest amount of muscle: squats, thrusters, sprints, jump ropes, etc. Now perform that exercise as fast as you can for twenty seconds, then rest for ten seconds, repeat seven more times, now... pass out of exhaustion. That's it just eight reps of do much as possible in twenty seconds followed by ten seconds of rest. It's easiest with a partner telling you when to start or stop, but I've used a wall clock with a large second hand, or a good watch with an interval timer. There are different ways of "scoring" or progressing yourself. If your using a stationary exercise then count your reps during each of the eight sets; the total is your score. Next time you do that exercise try to improve on it. Another way of progressing, if your doing a mobile exercise, which is pretty simple is to track how far you go, and then try to go farther on your next attempt. Lastly, try messing around with the times, if twenty seconds is too easy try twenty five seconds with ten seconds rest, or twenty seconds on with five seconds of rest. While this may sound easy, don't underestimate it, it is extremely difficult! If you are not in good shape you may want to modify it to make it easier. I would start it off by increasing the rest intervals to twenty seconds, and maybe only do six sets. As this becomes easier decrease the rest intervals by five seconds, and then when you are comfortable with that decrease it by another five seconds. When six sets become easy, increase it to seven sets, but also increase the rest to twenty seconds. Then start decreasing the rest interval just like before, and again when this gets easy add the eigth rep in. Try the Tabata Method a couple times a week in addition to your normal stregth training, and you start to see some of that extra fat burn right off! Contact me at info@180ft.com with any questions.

Apple Muffins

Looking for some yummy muffins that fit your low carb lifestyle? Give these a try.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1 and 1/4 cup flax seed meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
Artificial sweetener equal to 3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup can be flavored sugar-free syrup)
4 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup liquid (flavored syrup or water)
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 medium apple, chopped fairly finely
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Preparation:Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 12-muffin tin very well.1. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the rest of them.2. Let batter stand 10 minutes, then put into the muffin pan and bake for about 18 minutes until toothpick comes out clean and muffins just barely start to pull away from the sides of the tin.

Nutritional Information: Each muffin contains 2 grams link ecc effective carbohydrate plus 5 grams fiber.

from:http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/breads/r/appleflaxmuffin.htm

Stretching: The Truth

Here's a recent article from the New York Times about stretching. If you already know about the benefits of a dynamic warm-up then you can skip it. However, if your trainer (I'm talking about the guy at GB3's) is still prescribing a 20 sec static stretch or a 10 min jog around the block it would be a good idea to read the article.
I have been incorporating dynamic stretching in my client's warm-ups as well as my own for at least three years now. It does a much better job getting me ready for a workout than just doing a lap around the block. If you would like some more information or some dynamic stretching exercises, send me an email: info@180ft.com

Race for the Cure

Another running event is coming to town. This one is the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure, it takes place at The Satellite Student Union at Fresno State. The course includes a 1- mile run/walk and a 5k run/ walk. This is a great run filled with a ton of great people all running for a good cause, to end Breast Cancers, and support victims and survivors. Go here to register for the event, and learn more about the Komen organization.
The course itself is pretty flat and is a certified USA Track and Field course the only thing that'll slow you down will be all the participants.
While your signing up for this race don't forget to sign up for the Trail of Two Cities Marathon and Half.