Look Great TV: Episode I

I’m really excited to bring this new blog “column” to the Look Great at the Lake Boot Camp Newsletter!

As I mentioned yesterday, each week I’ll be doing a video answering YOUR QUESTIONS. The video will give me the opportunity to provide a more in depth and visual explanation. Personally, I’m a visual learner so I really like this idea.

One of the questions I get asked the most is, “What Nutrition Supplements Should I Take and Why?”

With so many products on the market and the never-ending infomercial product scams it’s no wonder nutrition supplements are such a confusing subject.

Today’s Look Great TV episode is a bit long (23:30), but I believe I did a pretty good job in breaking the subject down for you. So, grab a pen and paper and get ready to take some notes and draw some diagrams with me.

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Sara Bischoff, our resident gluten free guru, is back this month with an extremely important post about supporting a gluten free diet.

As an active person with Celiac Disease, I find it essential to take vitamin supplements to ensure I am getting enough of the nutrients I need to keep my body healthy.  As a Celiac, you do not absorb everything you eat or ingest, so there is a great importance of taking vitamins and supplements.

BUYER BEWARE: You cannot just go to the local grocery store and grab anything off the shelves.

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Not too long ago Tobacco companies were using cartoon characters to influence children into thinking smoking was cool. They got in a lot of trouble for that, eventually.

Fast food companies partner with Hollywood and have all sorts of action figures from popular movies at their restaurants.

And corporations do the same to sell all kinds of thing – including vitamins – for children.

Have you ever taken a good look at the labels of the leading brands of kid’s vitamins?

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Like I said yesterday, Janell and I spent an incredible weekend in KY at Bootcamp Bootcamp – the ultimate conference for weight loss & fitness boot camp owners.  In fact, there were over 100 of the best boot camp owners in the nation there.  Actually there were several from Canada and even one flew in from Australia!

We discussed everything from program design to nutrition, marketing strategies to member perks, local boot camps to online personal training programs, and so much more.

Yesterday I discussed Prograde Nutrition’s incredible cookbook, 197 Healthy and Delicious Fat Burning Recipes – For just $4.95.  Today, I’m going to stay in realm of nutrition – IT WAS A HOT TOPIC BECAUSE IT’S SO IMPORTANT.

Instead of food, I want to highlight an extremely important Fat Loss Secret Weapon.

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Janell and I spent this past weekend with over 100 of the best weight loss & fitness boot camp owners in the nation at Bootcamp Bootcamp.  Each year we get together to learn from the best, share ideas, see what’s new and just have some good ‘ol boot camp fun!  When I started my Chanhassen boot camp – Look Great at the Lake Boot Camp – last year I promised myself that I would always stay on the cutting edge to provide my members with  the best possible service and continuously deliver life-changing results.  That’s what the Bootcamp Bootcamp weekend was all about.

One of the things that kept coming up as a “must have” is healthy nutrition made simple.  Nationwide, members that saw the best results followed a solid nutrition plan.  After all, according to The National Weight Control Registry:

89% of people who lost 30 or more pounds and kept it off for at least one year accomplished their goals through a combination of die and exercise.  In that study, only 10% succeeded using diet alone, and only 1% using exercise alone.

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Did you see Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution?

If not, and you have kids, you need to get it on NetFlix.  It blew my mind, and on many occasions had me livid.  Janell thought it was so funny when I would curse at the TV. ;-b

Anyway, the hot topic was school lunches.  They’re atrocious – filled with chemicals, sugar, fat and empty calories.  Basically, school lunches poison our kids and give them Type 2 Diabetes.

But, what’s a parent to do?

Many working parents are short on time, and let’s face it, the kids like the school lunches.

Below are some easy to make, delicious and nutritious healthy lunch recipes for kids courtesy of Jayson Hunter, R.D.  By the way, one of the bonuses that comes with my new youth fitness program in Chanhassen, MN – Feel Great at the Playground Kids Boot Camp – is a Healthy Meal Planning For Children e-book from Jayson Hunter that includes 70 great healthy recipes for kids!

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Child nutrition can be really tough.  Today I’ve got some great child nutrition tips and healthy recipes for kids from registered dietitian, Jayson Hunter.

The biggest challenge with getting kids to eat the right foods is giving them enough choices. Kids go through phases and like and dislike different foods at different times.  If you give them enough healthy choices then they can choose a variety of foods based on their likes at the time.  They will also be eating plenty of the right calories and nutrients to support a healthy growth process.

By the way, most children should be eating around 2200 calories per day.  Here’s something to think about:

• The average bowl of kids cereal has about 250 calories and it’s almost pure sugar.
• The average kids size microwave pizza has about 450 calories of starch and grease.
• The average fast food kids meal (you know, the one with the toy) has about 600 calories of “poison”.

Here are a couple breakfast recipes that come as bonuses when your kids join Feel Great at the Playground Kids Boot Camp.

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The following low-calorie yet delicious healthy recipe was given to me by one of my Look Great at the Lake Boot Camp members, Amy Jaszczak.  Amy found the recipe in People magazine; it comes from The Biggest Loser host, Alison Sweeney.

Green Beans with Chicken & Crumbled Feta Cheese

Ingredients

• 1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 tbsp. olive oil, plus some for drizzling
• 1 lemon
• 6 oz. fresh green beans (1/2 cup per person)
• 1/2 cup fresh feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 tomoato, chopped
• 1/2 avocado (optional)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Broil chicken with a dash of olive oil and lemon slices on top for 4 – 5 minutes.  Turn the chicken halfway through, and squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken.  Cook for another 4 – 5 minutes.
2. When chicken is almost done broiling, drop green beens in boling water for 1 -2 minutes.  Strain green beans, taking them out while they’re still bright green and crispy.  Toss them into a bowl with 1 tbsp. of olive oil, crumbled feta and chopped tomato.  You want the green beans to still be warm when you do this to melt the cheese slightly.  If desired, slice the 1/2 avocado and add it.
3. When chicken is done, cut into pieces and toss in the green bean mixture.  Serve.

What does Alison Sweeney say the trick to eating healthy is:

“Find recipes that incorporate vegetable into the main course.” – Alison Sweeney

I totally agree with Alison.  This is a delicous way to get your green vegetables in!

Have Faith & Take Action!

Justin Yule, B.S., CPT, YFS

Your friendly neighborhood Chaska / Chanhassen boot camp instructor and online personal trainer.

Burn 9x more fat at a fraction of the cost of other personal training programs.

P.S. – For a FREE 2-week Trial to the area’s number one weight loss & fitness boot camp visit www.LookGreatAtTheLakeBootCamp.com

P.P.S. – For a $9 30-day Trial to the first and number one Online weight loss & fitness boot camp visit www.OnlineVideoBootCamp.com

Note:  This post was written last week when I was flying home from Arizona.

I’m absolutely MISERABLE right now.

I’m not trying to bring you down, but I felt a strong need to share this story.

As I’m writing this, I’m sitting on the plane coming home from my vacation, and I’m just miserable.  However, it’s not because my vacation is coming to an end.

It’s because I’m in pain and incredibly uncomfortable.

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that a few years ago I fell skiing and jacked up my tailbone pretty bad.  It made sitting for extended periods of time agonizing.  Flying was always the worst.  Unfortunately, I did a lot of it for a period of time when I was working with Life Time Fitness – I traveled the country training in new trainers and managers at grand opening clubs.

Well, about a month ago I discovered a joint support formula called Flex by a local MN – Eniva.  It changed my world. I originally took Flex because I wanted to test it on my beat up knees.  To my surprise it took away about 90% of the pain and discomfort that my tailbone causes me.  I was sold and I immediately decided to learn more about Eniva products and share my findings with my readers (see Life Cleanse & BioChlor).  Oh yeah, the joint pain in my knees is pretty much gone, too. ?

So, why am I feeling so terrible now?

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A lot of people ask me about my routine…

What do I eat and when?

When do I workout?

What supplements do I take?

How do I balance fitness with my personal life?

I thought it would make a good blog post to share all of that with you.  We’ve all got our roadblocks to fitness – the number one excuse I always here is time.  Money is second, but that’s a whole different post and a deep dive into values…I’m just not going there right now.

Yesterday I shared a typical Mon/Wed/Fri (boot camp teaching days).  Today, I’ll show you how I balance Tuesday & Thursday (non-boot camp teaching days).

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