The day of reckoning is about to end. I pray that all have met their goals and are happy with their success. A little poem I know made me think of today and my end results. It was written by William Herbert Brewster.

“The present conditions and circumstance, may make it appear that I have not a chance; the odds may be against me, this fact I admit, I haven’t much to boast of-just a little faith and grit, in spite of the things that stand in my way, I’m determined to be Somebody..Someday.”

We all know that we have made great leaps across large expanses to get where we are today. Each of us finding things along this way that is new and not so new, joyous and not so joyous, BUT the determination of each of us to reach this day has not gone unnoticed, because each of us, whether we participated in Summer Sizzle or not, have found that we want to be Somebody, Someday.

I pray you have made it!

Move the Mass, Savor the Flavor, Hug the Mug(you)

Fran 1800 class

…you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.

With all the talk of food, some must wonder in it’s power to bring people to gather.

Our everyday way of life is predisposed of eating our food with those we love. We share our recipes, we love to cook for others so that others can enjoy our endevours as master chefs(little over done, pun intended)

Little yellow peeps, also my favorite, I look so forward to them coming every year along with Spring, the renewing of life, the anticipation of summer and cookouts.

Oh but we are so self distructive to ourselves, EAT THE PEEP, ohhhhhsooooogoooood, that peep did not make you fat, that ice cream cone did not make you gain 10lbs, that loaded hamburger with 6 slices of bacon, swiss cheese, dollup of mayonaise, with all that fat and redness running out between the bun that is full of high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oils, …..NOW THAT MADE YOU FAT,

Yep, clogged your artieries, stopped you gallbladder dead with a stone the size of Manhattan…lets go baaaaaack…… to the peeps shall we?

Those sweet little soft pillow clouds of yellow cunningness, full of hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrupooooohhhhh, save me from my self destructed ways, put into my hands those two hand fulls of greens, and bless me with the power to know that if I want to lose it I have to, have to…

Yes I know, my willingness to share, but I am weak, but human, made in His image, then he must be blonde out of a bottle, short, fat, and goes to bootcamp looking like a parading porky pig, doing the bear crawl… God does have a sense of humor.

Move the Mass,Savor the Flavor,Hug the Mug

Fran 1800 class

“Happiness is the key to success, if you love what you are doing, you will be successful” - Herman Caine

Are you happy?  Is the food you eat making you feel supportive in your lifestyle? The work out working for you? If these things don’t make you happy then you will find trouble in your lifestyle.

Can I tell you that everyday I look so forward to my day, especially Mon, Tues,Thurs, Friday.

Why?

Because I am going to Get Fit NH BOOTCAMP, yeah! Hip hip hooray, I get to bootcamp and find my team, MY TEAM!!

What a wonderful feeling it is to belong, HAPPINESS!! my food…I am a creative food cooker, think you can’t live your life without bread?….ohhhhh yes you cannnnnnn, I made a quiche that was to die for, ok…, maybe not so dramatic, but it certainly had HAPPINESS written all over it, and my lettuce chicken chimichanga, I did a little dance when I made that, HAPPINESS!!!

Will I be the Greatest Winner? Probably not.

Will I beat our most wonderful Coach Dean?  probably not, but for me I made strides, lost a little FAT,FAt,Fat,fat(Swven, luv him), gained some sculptured muscle, love those legs…hehe..haha, and Happiness just abounds, and that is SUCCESS

Move the mass, Savor the flavor, Hug the mug(you)

Fran 1800 class

Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown is gonna be a change for all of us, with that comes expectations, and for sure change is one of them.

We have two options:

1. To look forward with excitement of this change
2. To fear that change.

Will I lose weight? will I look good for summer? Can I make the heads turn of the opposite sex, will I fail and disappoint myself.?

We as humans are masters of destroying ourselves by little changes, like changing your hair color, using new cologne, buying that pair of pants, losing a pound, gaining a pound.

I want you all to remember THE TEAM.

Though we lose weight as individuals, we bring that to our TEAM, so use your TEAM as the sounding board for your questions, concerns, ideas, thoughts of encouragement.

Dean talked about SIMPLIFY……make easier, to change to simple forms, regroup of terms.

Be kind to yourselves. Be kind to those who don’t understand, teach someone that change is gonna happen,  DON’T MAKE YOUR FOOD HARD TO DIGEST, SIMPLIFY!

Move the Mass, Savor the Flavor, Hug the Mug(you)

Fran 1800class

This blog today is not on food, but on another kind of nutrition -  feeding our confidence in what we do at Bootcamp.

Last night our boot camp session really rocked!

Why?

Because we had encouragement from the team. We did a particular difficult workout but we also had people saying “come on you can do it! 15 seconds!  bring those knees up! push it! last 10 seconds! come on you can do it! 5..4..3..2..1.. yeah”

WOW!!

Thank you Gretchen, your loud encouragement was great!

Dean and Nancy are great coaches and they work us hard while encouraging us to continue on but the TEAM and team encouragement is the key. The fact  that each one of us wants the others to succeed; again a big WOW!

Thank you TEAM, I can’t wait some days just to see your faces, and when your not there, there is a hole – a YOU size hole!

Thanks for “Making it Happen”

Move the Mass, Savor the Flavor, Hug the Mug!!

Fran 1800class

Words have not come easy for me on this topic, pooping, dumping, bowel movement, caca, the daily dump…lol, BUT if you aren’t doing it once a day then YOU  have problems with CONSTIPATION.

Fiber -  remember 8-12cups a day fiber? Fiber is the sweeper of your bowels. And if you don’t think you need to sweep your bowels on a daily basis then I would pose this question, all that food you eat, sitting in a closed container @ 98 degrees what do you think is going on there? RIGHT and RIGHT again, not good, pooh,(do you know why Piglet was looking in the toilet?, looking for Pooh) lol, stinky smelly stuff, whew!! rancid….FOOD

So we eat 8-12 cups of fiber and those little sweepers come along the alimentary canal, (nowhere near Panana Canal) and sweep those bowels of the food that is turning rancid and pushing it to go a little faster so that you can POOP IT OUT, lol

I may have been a little constipated with my words at first but I am just cracking myself up with this blog, and on top of that I have so many jokes (all perfectly in good taste of course) lol again. Poop at least once a day but if you are eating your 8-12 cups of fiber then you should be going more!,3,maybe 4 times a day. BUT a clean bowel is also a healthy bowel and if you have read any papers lately colon cancer is on the rise. Why? family history is certainly a big one, but how does that happen, lack of fiber in the diet? Lack of cleaning the bowel completely, food staying in the bowel for long periods of time, eating unhealthy food? Fast food(?) is not bowel fast, in fact it most likely slows our gut with the amount of hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, chemicals that are on our food, in our food, one thing leads to another.

We don’t like talking about bowel movements, but the way to be healthy is to take care of the second largest organ in our body and that is the bowel, first being our skin.

If you are over fifty and have not had a colonoscopy then plan one with your Doc. If you have a family history of it, your first one should be @ forty. If you have black tarry stools, then see your Doc again, if you have pain on moving your bowels you may have constipation, hemmoroids, or a blockage, all can be taken care of by seeing your Doc, eating healthy, 8-12 cups of fiber.

Go to Dr. Oz’s web site and read what he has to say about bowel movements, it is a very interesting show and it does bring many questions to the for front not excluding the back end (I know, bad joke)

OH OH DON”T FORGET WATER!!! We do know that water is very essential to the flow of our bowel movements, more water the less hard your stools and of course easy passage.

Ok! one last joke?  I’m doing it again..lol Move the Mass, Savor the Flavor, and Hug the Mug(you)

Fran 1800 class

If you have never heard me go on and on about iceburg lettuce let me begin by telling you, you might as well eat a rock for all the nutritional value it has.

I don’t want to sound like a diet smasher, but if your gonna put something in your mouth to eat make it worth the effort. I have stated before that I really try to get 12 cups of veggies into my lifestyle everyday.

Why?

Fiber, and the vitamins and minerals from your veggies are not to be taken lightly, they are the very substance of your body chemistry. I could put into this blog all the nutritional values of each type of lettuce, but it is mind boggling.

When yo go shopping(Market Basket in Tilton has an excellent range of veggies including lettuce types) look at the different lettuces available to you, try them raw (the best way to eat them) or you can even saute’ them.

Oh my word, what a different flavor you get when you cook them, and guess what? A cup fills fast when you eat lettuce, and fiber abounds and when fiber abounds it fills you fast and cleans you out as well. (which by the way is another topic for us to discuss)

Some names to look for, Little Gems, Mache (my favorite,aka lambs lettuce), watercress, romaine, oak leaf, mizuna, meselum, Boston/butter. Don’t forget Spinach, beetgreens, kale, swiss chard, fennel, herbs, and edible flowers.

Happy Crunching!

Move the Mass, Savor the Flavor, Hug the Mug(you)….Fran 1800 class

…is how a two pound box of chocolates can make a women gain five pounds!

Have you ever said to yourself, I hardly ate anything so why did I gain 5 lbs?

The mystery of the body is no mystery at all really it is simply supply and demand. Hormones, INSULIN being the biggest culprit of all, causes us to gain weight. This is a very simplified version – say you eat a white baked potato,which have a very HIGH glycemic index, but because it is not enough to cover the bolus of insulin that has just been released into the body(about 100units) the insulin goes into fat stores. You have been born with a predetermined number of fat cells, but there is nothing that says they can not be filled up to huge fat cells, those fat cells are the extra insulin you did not cover with your baked potato.

It is not so bad you ate the potato but the fact that the potato has pushed the pancreas to push out insulin and the insulin can not be used up to it’s full potential. 15 grams of carbohydrates = 1 unit of insulin, so one may say that in order for you to use up that bolus of insulin you need to eat 1500 grams of carbohydrates, oh my goodness, wonder why we get fat? 80-120 is a normal blood sugar. In order for you to keep that blood sugar @ a constant level you should eat (6) small meals with 2cups of veggies, proteins 3oz (women) 4oz(men) don’t forget fat(5gms)

Spiking your blood sugar makes you hyper and dropping your blood sugar makes you tired, the body doesn’t like tired for long so it says to you EAT, MANGIA, quickly, please I’m starving,hhhhheeeeelllllpppp mmmmmmeeeee.

What do you do? Pop a bonbon, bag of chips, a twinkie (which by the way will last longer than the end of time) don’t eat it!. But you get my drift right? Steady as she goes and stay on a good course, exercise daily, and you will not need to eat things that make the blood sugar go POP.

May I take this time to say this I eat much more now than I did on any diet I was ever on, and I don’t gain weight. The difference of this lifestyle change is that FIBER is most constant friend. I am not a veggie person but once I understood the way the body uses food then I GOT IT, Once I understood that exercise is not just for the jocks of the world but for us to sustain human growth and development, I GOT IT. Once I understood that a good healthy outlook on life, joy, friends, family, things you like to do all contribute to weight loss results, I GOT IT.

We maybe made up of thousands of thousands of cells the bottom line is we are human and we all need to feel our worth, in looking good, feeling good, and doing good.move the mass, savor the flavor, hug the mug(you)

Fran 1800 class

… sugar at supper time, won’t you be my sugar and love me all the time?

Sugar, don’t we just love the stuff? That wonderful sweetness as it hits our lips, rolls over our tongues,increase the mouth watering delight…..oh soooooo goooood

STOP! put the sugar down and back away fastly. (editors note – is that a word? : )

Sugar is NOT YOUR FRIEND, in fact sugar is one of the most destructive substances in the human diet. AGEs are advanced glycation endproducts, protein molecules that bind to collagen(the connective tissue of cartilage) and make it stiff. Inflammatory response to sugar is getting high glances from many medical personnel as it seems to cause many other issues as well. Heart disease, this inflammatory response irritates the blood vessels and may well be the number one cause of metabolic syndrome(type 2 diabetes).

VALENTINE DAY is just around the corrrrneeeer. One piece of chocolate does not make ones heart inflame(atory) but this may be the year that you think of different ways of expressing your love for someone. Foot massage, a great big beautiful salad, with baby greens(no iceburg lettuce), with feta cheese, walnuts (lightly coated and baked with maple syrup and olive oil), nice warm pomegranate juice (pure) dressing, 1/2tsp dijon mustard, 1/4 cup of pomegranate juice, 1/4cup of lemon juice, 1/4 cup extra light virgin olive oil, salt/pepper put on stove till warm, spritzer it over your salad, oh so good, diamonds does a body good,…….or was that milk?hmmm.

Enjoy your sweetie who ever he or she maybe, may be your best pet, but remember, move the mass, savor the flavor, and hug the mug(you)…

Fran 1800 class PS We are gonna miss you Nancy and Dean, learn lots, hurry back, be safe, God speed!!! (another editors note – Thanks Fran!)

… it’s really awfully rude, if someone speaks when both his cheeks, are jammed and crammed with food. -Martin Gardner

Ahhhhhh,Mmmmmmm,Yumyum, foooooooooooood, wonderful,tasty, mouthwatering FOOD!

The very reason we go on DIETS for, FOOD. We can’t get enough, eat to much,not the right kind, part of the never ending story.

Remember when I said embrace it, digest it, mull it over, write it down? Food on any lifestyle change is always the culprit for success or failure. It is very hard for people in general to stop eating what they love and eat what they don’t.

This is when education comes into play. Learn about food, try things that you never had before. Get all those spices out of your cupboard and use them. Switch them up, if you like Italian, get all the spices that Italian’s use, put them in your veggies you don’t usually eat, Mexican, oh my goodness, I have found more ways of eating Mexican spices in veggies that you won’t believe the concoctions that I come up with, they AMAZE even me.

My new years resolution was and is to eat my full 12 cups of veggies and most days I do that, but it would not happen if I was not willing to try to eat it differently.

I am also a food label reader, I look for carbs, fiber,sugar, and proteins, ingredients are very important, no high fructose corn syrup, and no hydrogenated oil, no monoglycerides. sugars below 10 is ok, does not spike the blood sugar, more fiber the better, and less ingredients on the label the healthier your food is.

After Tuesday’s most grueling, excruciating workout that Dean the Mean bootcamp coach put us through (only bright spot was Nancy coming in and doing the warmup with us)  LOL, I came home and famished as I was, sauted onions,peppers,celery,mushrooms,lambs lettuce(at the very end), carrots, with olive oil and chipotle chile pepper, about 3 cups worth of veggies, put some mexican cheese on top and voila, I’ve a meal fit for a dogtired bootcamp survivor. move the mass, savor the flavor,hug the mug, make it happen….

Fran 1800 class