Weekend Challenge

You can do it, put your back into it!




3 Rounds

Superman - 5 reps hold for 20 seconds and return to relaxed position
Arm Haulers - 10 reps -video HERE
Wacky Jacks - these target the biggest muscles in your back, your latissimus dorsi.
Plank - hold for 1minute

Don't forget to end your workout with back stretches!

Lower Back/Abdominal Stretches

Harmonica:
1. Sit with one leg bent in front of you and the other on bent behind you.
2. Lean forward trying to get your nose to your ankle.
3. Slowly, keeping the head down move the nose along the leg until you reach the knee.
4. Continue moving the nose back and forth as if you are playing the harmonica.
Hint: You will also feel this stretch in the lats and muscles of the back.

Extended Child's Pose:
1. Sit with the bottom on the heels.
2. Bend forward at the hips and reach the arms out in front of you.
Hint:  The more you walk your finger tips out the more of a stretch you will feel.

Cat Pose:
1. Find a position on your hands and knees where you have a neutral spine position.
2. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale pull the navel into the spine and the back towards the sky.  Curving your torso to hollow out your belly.

Scorpion
1. Lie with the belly on the ground
2. Extend arms in a 'T' out to the side
3. Extend the leg and swing it across to the opposite side of the body
4. Press the shoulders down and look in the same direction of the crossed leg

Eating Right Between Meetings

Get off track when you're on a business trip?  Read this quick article for some great apps to help you find healthy choices on the road!  

By Julie Weed for the nytimes.com

The stereotype of business trip dining consisted of an artery-clogging succession of meeting-room pastries, oversize restaurant portions and fast food snagged at the airport. Anyone on a vegetarian or gluten-free diet had an especially hard time.

But mobile applications and Web sites can now help travelers eat more healthfully on the road.

David Gartside, managing director for global talent at Accenture, travels three out of every four weeks, both internationally and around the United States, and he says he often eats at airport restaurants, “because it is an efficient use of time.” Mr. Gartside uses anapp called GateGuru to tell him which restaurants are nearby in his terminal or other terminals. “I used to eat whatever was in front of me, not knowing a better choice might be just five gates away,” he said.

Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietitian at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, says she works with patients who use services like MyFitnessPal to help them eat healthfully when they travel. But not all apps have the same ease of use, features or science backing them up, Ms. Zeratsky said. “It’s caveat emptor, the buyer needs to beware.” She recommended that diners use, for example, calorie-counting apps that are based on a reliable database, like the one from the Agriculture Department.

Frequent travelers, and the surgeon general’s office, offered some of the following recommendations of Web sites and apps.  Get the apps!  

Oven Roasted Salmon with Parmesan-Mayo Crust

from SheCooksHeCleans.com

Tired of grilling your salmon?  Try this yummy recipe to change it up!    

• 16-20 ounces salmon fillet(s), skin on
• Kosher salt/ freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, preferably homemade
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• additional Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• a few dashes of sweet paprika

get the how to and a recipe to make your own mayo.  

Weekend Challenge

Stairway to Heavenly legs! 

Starting on the bottom stair place right foot on stair and complete 10 lunges

Jog up and down stairs for 2 minutes

Place left foot on first stair and complete 10 lunges

Jog up and down stairs for 2 minutes

With your toes on the edge of the stair raise and lower heels for 10 calf raises

Speed it up!  Run up and down the stairs for 2 minutes

Stand sideways to the stairs step up one foot at a time jog down - repeat on other side

With feet together jump up step to step

Cool Down and be sure to stretch your big four leg muscles:  Quads, Hamstrings, Calves & Glutes.

How To Talk To The Butcher

from huffingtonpost.com

Do you know the difference between a Tri-Tip and a Flatiron? We're guessing the answer is probably no, which means you should be consulting with a butcher. While talking to a butcher may seem like an antiquated notion, it's one that (for meat eaters, at least) should be part of our grocery shopping routine. But how do youtalk to a butcher?

Since butcher shops are making a come back (in a really small sort of way), we think it's time to refresh this skill. To put you at ease with talking to a guy who's got big cleavers at the ready, we talked to Jeffry de Picciotto, Head Butcher at Dickson's Farmstand Meats and creator of FudeHouse.com, to equip us with everything we need to know to walk into a butcher shop confidently -- and walk out with what will be an amazing dinner. Here's what he had to say:

Why do you think so few people go to the butcher for meat?

Unfortunately, I think intimidation is a big part of it. I've seen many people walk into the shop and clam up in front of the meat case. Some people just stare at a distance. Others speak in a meek voice. It's true, the meat can be intimidating (or awe-inspiring), but we're nice people and we're here to help. I think most people find the cognitive distance that pre-packaged meat provides comforting, more manageable and thusly more approachable.

I can't blame them, the physical distance between butchers and consumers has quite literally made butchers less approachable. We're stuck behind tall meat cases, or behind glass, or nowhere in sight. It's sad. Old-school mom-and-pop or father-and-son butcher shops have been on the decline for 40 years, and it's not until recently that some really fantastic butcher shops have revived the craft in a really important way. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to a good butcher shop. But these mighty new shops are popping up around the country and doing wonders to help break down the walls between consumers, meat and butchers.  Keep reading . . .

From One Chicken Breast, Many Meals

By Martha Rose Shulman for  the nytimes.com

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Poached and Shredded Chicken Breasts

In my supermarket it’s not as easy to find whole chicken breasts on the bone as it used to be. I’m more apt to find a packet of two thick boneless, skinless breasts, about 1.3 to 1.4 pounds total. Chicken on the bone does not dry out as much as boneless breasts. Still, you can use boneless skinless breasts (as I have done) for all of this week’s recipes. I recommend using free-range organic chicken from small producers whenever possible.

1 whole chicken breast on the bone, skinned and split, or 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 pounds

2 1/2 quarts water

1 onion, quartered

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or oregano, or a combination

Salt to taste (1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons)

Combine the water, the quartered onion and the whole crushed garlic cloves in a 2-quart saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts, and bring back to a simmer. Skim off any foam that rises, and then add the dried herbs. Cover partially, reduce the heat to low and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. (Cut one in half; the meat should not be pink.) Add salt to taste. Allow the chicken to cool in the broth if there is time. Remove the chicken from the broth when cool enough to handle. Remove from the bone and shred, pulling strips of chicken off the top of the breast. Pull with the grain, and the meat comes apart naturally. You should have about 4 cups of shredded chicken. Strain the chicken broth, and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, skim off and discard the fat, and freeze the broth in smaller containers.

Yield: About 4 cups shredded chicken.

Advance preparation: The shredded chicken will keep for three days in the refrigerator.

Get the other 3 recipes . . .

Weekend Challenge

Every body's working for the weekend but make the weekend work for you!

Try this:  4 rounds of the following exercises decreasing by 5 reps each round:

• 25 push ups
• 25 sit ups
• 25 sit ups
• 25 squats

The 7 Big Body Breakdowns

How to avoid (and recover from) the most common running injuries.  
From runnersworld.com

In an ideal runner's world, every step of every mile would be 100 percent pain-free. No aches, no twinges, no lingering soreness from yesterday's workout. The reality is that many runners constantly deal with a slight (or not so slight) disturbance—a tender foot, a tight hamstring, a whiny knee. While these nagging issues often aren't serious enough to require a time-out, they are annoying, especially when they don't let you fully enjoy your time on the roads.

Think of running pains in terms of a spectrum. At one end you have severe, full-blown injuries—call it the red zone, which includes stress fractures that require time off. The other end, where you're in top form, is the green zone. Mild, transient aches that bug you one day and disappear the next sit closer to the green end. Unfortunately, many runners get stuck in the middle—the not-quite-injured but not-quite-healthy yellow zone.

Whether you land in the red, linger in the yellow, or return to the green end of the spectrum depends largely on how you react when that first stab of pain hits, says Richard J. Price, M.D., a sports physician at Rocky Mountain Orthopedic Associates in Grand Junction, Colorado. "Often it comes down to whether you take a little time off now or a lot of time off later," he says. You can reduce your risk of ending up in the red zone if at the first sign of an issue, you back off your mileage, reduce the intensity of your runs, start a treatment program, and develop a proactive long-term injury-prevention strategy, such as strength training,stretching, and regular foam-rolling. "Physical therapy is like homework," Dr. Price says. "None of us likes having to do it, but if you don't do it, the issue will come back."

According to Price and a team of doctors and physical therapists consulted in the following pages, there are seven injury hotspots that most frequently plague runners. If you don't get a handle on them, these issues can trap you in that nefarious yellow zone, or worse, turn into an acute injury that forces you to take a layoff. Here's how you can keep annoying pains in check so you can move into—and, with hope, stay in—the green zone.  Get the how-to from runnersworld.com

Turkey Meatloaf Mini’s

Make these as minis for easy go-to lunches and snacks from DandyDishes.com

Serves 4 (makes 8 mini’s or 1 loaf)

1 lb ground turkey
½ onion, finely chopped
½ granny smith apple peeled, cored and finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh chopped Italian parsley
Tomato paste or ketchup

get the easy how to at DandyDishes.com  

Weekend Challenge

80 sit ups
70 squats
60 mountain climbers
50 burpees
40 jump squats
30 crunches
20 push ups
10 burpees

Finding Your Ideal Running Form

by Gretchen Reynolds from nytimes.com 

Can people become better, more efficient runners on their own, merely by running?

That question, seemingly so innocuous, is remarkably divisive at the moment, with running experts on one side suggesting that runners should be taught a specific, idealized running form, while opponents counter that the best way to run is whatever way feels right to you.

Little published science, however, has been available on the subject of whether runners need technical instruction or naturally intuit the skill. Now a timely new study suggests that new runners eventually settle into better running form — just by running more.

For the study, which will be published in the September issue of the journalMedicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers with the Bioenergetics and Human Performance Research Group at the University of Exeter in England turned to a group of adult women who’d recently joined a running group.

The group’s members were planning to embark on a 10-week, self-paced running program, with a half marathon race as the incentive at the program’s conclusion, for those who wished to compete.  keep reading at nytimes.com 

Sunday Night Quiche

Make this quiche Sunday night so Monday morning is easy breezy from thingsmybellylikes.com  If you're a wheat eater you can easily make your own crust or buy a Pilsbury one from the store.

Chicken, Bacon & Spinach Quiche (serves 6)

Coconut Flour Pastry:

*adapted from the Coconut Mama

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

1. Whisk together the butter and eggs. Stir into the coconut flour and salt. Keep mixing until it comes together as a wet dough.
2. Press into a well-greased 9in pie dish. It won’t behave like ordinary dough, you’ll have to do a fair amount of pressing with your hands but trust me, it comes out fine.
3. Prick the bottom and bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Filling:

• 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced into small cubes
• 3 rashers streaky bacon, finely chopped
• 1/2 medium, white onion
• 1 tbsp butter
• 4 cups baby spinach leaves (or two generous handfuls)
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Get the how to and great pics from thingsmybellylikes.com