I am officially off-season, no fitness competitions coming up, no road races, although I’m still looking for a Fall one, so if you know of an upcoming 10K road races  Holla. Any who, so now I plan on doing workouts that I have always wanted to do like yoga. I have been doing yoga on and off for about 10 years and I like how it feels, but I never seems to stick with it, when I get busy training for a competition its the first thing I cut from my workout routine or I find a million excuses not to do it.

For the past month I have shocked myself by attending yoga 1-2xs/week. I’ve been going to Prana Power Yoga. I think I have been able to stick with it because it only 1 hour and its close to my house.  So I go to yoga today  and not sure if I was one in class that took the short bus to yoga that day or I was the rock star of the class, but I was getting a little extra attention from the instructor. Which I don’t mind a little extra attention, but at Prana they keep the temperature at around 90 degrees and about 100% humidity, and you get just a little sweaty. And when I look around the room, I know, I know, yoga is suppose to be about you, Blah, blah but I do peek occasionally especially when 15 minutes into class I’m sweating like a hooker in church and I’m wondering is it just me’ And it is.  Which makes me think the more I do yoga in a heated space will I stop sweating so much’ Are do yogis have some crazy way to shut down their sweat glands.
Any who.. so when I’m getting all this extra attention I can’t help but think I don’t want to touch me why would you want to touch me,  I’m a big ol’ sweat ball.  God love that instructor.

After I leave yoga I feel like I’ve taken a big deep breath and my tight hips don’t feel so tight. So if you seem to drop yoga out of your workout routine, don’t once you get this feeling you don’t want to let it go.

My husband and I have been talking about running the Falmouth Road race for years and we DID IT!!! It was 7.2 miles of FUN.  The entire course was lined with cheering fans which was AWESOME, especially when this woman at mile 5 told us all that it would get better if we smiled. Which made everyone around us smile. Along the course there were numerous musicians playing motivational songs. Best of all was following a gentlemen who was dressed like David Lee Roth circa 1984.

The race was so well organized, while you did wait in line it was only because you were waiting with 10,000 people to get on the bus to the finish line and to use the portapotty prior to the race. Typically a race thins out once you get to the 1 mile mark, but no so much with this one because the course is so tight.

Best of all is that I enjoyed training with my husband, this was the first time we have ever trained for an event together and it was so much fun to spend quality time training together and yes we crossed the finish lines together. This year we finished the race in [01:16:09]. Now I have a number to try to beat next year. Fingers crossed I get lucky in the lottery. In the meantime I’m looking for a new goal. Any suggestions’

Artichokes are the oldest fruit known to man and similar to the lobster you must work to get to the good stuff. Artichokes are a significant source of  425 grams of potassium, 61/2 grams of fiber vitamin C, folic acid and 72 grams of  magnesium. Virtually fat-free, the artichoke weighs in at 60 calories (per medium artichoke) and is low in sodium.

They are in season from May to March and the biggest growers of Artichokes is the California.

When buying an artichoke you will want to:

• choose an artichoke that has tight leaves
• one that is heavy for its size
• a deep green color
• a squeaking noise when the leaves are rubbed together
• avoid any artichokes that have cracked leaves or are showing any brown discoloration.

More artichoke facts are available here.

Today is our last big run before the race. We will be running 6.2 miles. The humidity is suppose to break or it will be a long, hot sweaty run. If you are in Boston and want to tag along meet us on the river. BTW have I told you that the race doesn’t allow headphones so we have been training without our ipods. I thought it would be hard, but not so much. You really get into a nice rhythm listening to your footsteps and your breathing its kind of meditative.

<a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge/868124900372960214″ mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge/868124900372960214″>Kim and Philip 6.2 miler</a><br/><a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge” mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge”>Find more Runs in Mid-cambridge, Massachusetts</a>

LONDON (Reuters) – Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over conventionally produced food, according to a major study published on Wednesday. Click here to read the rest of the story.

Instead of going organic try eating foods grown by local farmers market. These foods haven’t traveled days in a truck to get to you and are currently in-season so they have a ton of nutrients and are sometimes better priced.  On the plus side its often sold by the farmer so you can ask about the growing conditions. You can’t do that at your local grocery store. You may also want to try getting involved in a  CSA, community support agriculture — a local farm or group of farms deliver locally grow fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis.  To get a list of these farms, click here.

Organic Foods overview

My husband and I met 15 years ago at a Falmouth Road Race race party. A mutual friend invited us and who knew 15 years later I would be sitting here married to Philip and planning to run the Falmouth road race.  Philip and I are not sentimental l people at all, but every year we have talked about running this race when we hit a milestone in our relationship. On August 9th it will be 15 years that we have been together. Needless to say I am a little SHOCKED at how fast time goes by and he is still the first person that I want to talk to when I get up in the morning and the last person I want to talk to when I go to bed. Enough sentimental stuff… So, we have been training for the road race since mid June, slowly building up our mileage.  We have 2 weeks to go and today is a milestone run, 5.5 miles.  In 2000 I ran the Tufts 10K and that was the last time I ran for more than 20 minutes on a treadmill. So today is our first LONG run. (more…)

A good friend of ours rented a house for the week on Block Island and he invited us to come down for the day.  We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to hang out on Block Island.  We hit the beach!! The beach was beautiful and the weather was GORGEOUS and I even got in the water!! Which is rare for me.  So after a great day on the beach we head back to the house which was beautiful, it has 2 great spacious decks and huge yard. As we are relaxing and recapping our days, I over hear 2 of the 20sometings whisper, that girl has one of the best bodies I’ve ever seen! HOLLA a 40something is being envied by 20things. That made my week, okay who am I kidding almost my made year!!! Got to go I’m off to call E! to make sure I’m ranked in the next episode of best beach bodies.

Review of Last Weeks Goals:

* I will update my Falmouth Road Race training schedule
* I will review my Tri Fitness training and see how to improve
* I will read 1 chapter in my wellness coach manual
* I will make an appt with my training buddy to practice coaching
* I will update the Fab Fit Squad blog 3x/week
* I will take 1 yoga class/week

This mean completed
(more…)

Throughout this year, I have been periodically posting about training for the Trifitness competition. Well — I DID IT!!! I just got home off the red eye and had to tell you all about it. 1st let’s recap what the event is all about.

1. Grace and Physique — you are judged on your body conditioning and grace walking in 5 in heels
2. Obstacle Course-– only 24 women can do this course in less than 1 minute. My 1st time through, I did it in 88 seconds. The back half of the course is pure SPRINTING, OMG I thought I was going to die. But was so proud of myself of fighting through!!! Can you say mental stamina. Let me paint the picture. It was 106 in Nevada!!! You are hydrating like crazy, so that you don’t have a heat stroke or cramp up due to dehydration.
   • 10 foot Wall
   • Running Grid
   • Incline/Decline Monkey Bars
   • Balance Beam
   • 15 foot Cargo Net
   • Shuttle Run
   • 3 Low Hurdles
   • Steeple chase jump
   • Under and Over Bar

(more…)

I am in the process of completing my wellness coach certification and during this process you are to create your own wellness vision so that you can better understand what its like to create one and how to guide your clients in the process.

So you may be asking what is a wellness coach’  Wellness Coaches not only support your fitness efforts, they help you understand and take steps to embrace and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The crux of understanding how to embrace and maintain a healthy lifestyle is painting a picture of what your life would look like and how would you feel when you achieved your healthy lifestyle.  While painting this picture you will also look at what is YOUR motivation, not someone’s for achieving this lifestyle and what steps are you willing to take to make this picture become a reality. The vision helps you think about how you are going to motivate yourself to achieve your wellness vision.

Here is my 3 month wellness vision.

• To fix my muscle imbalances so that I may stay active for a long time
  • What is motivating to achieve this goal. I’m (like it or lump) getting older and still want to be as active as possible
  • My main obstacle is finding the time to take care of myself– yes you read that correctly. I struggle with that life balance, taking care of myself versus the needs of my clients, business and family. Just like you I will and can find plenty excuses to do other things, like train my clients or work or things around the house. Yes, as much as I love working out I too struggle with this.
  • My strategy around this is to put my workouts in my calendar and make an appointment with myself, this isn’t an option.

The key to achieving my wellness vision is to break my vision into small digestible goals. I will break them in what I want to achieve in 3 months and the steps I will take weekly towards achieving my goals. If you notice my goals are SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

Specific = My goal is phrased in a way that answers these questions — Who, What, How, When, Which, Why and Where

Source: Beginner TriAthlete.com

Measurable = This is how you are going to measure progress and action towards your goals
Attainable = This is where I look to you want to challenge yourself, but if there set your goals too high you may lose interest in attaining them
Realistic = The goal needs to be realistic for where you are, as stated above it should challenge and motivate you to keep moving forward, but should not kill you to achieve your goal.
Timely = You need to set a timeline, a goal without a timeline is just a dream.

3 month goal

1. To compete in the Women’s TriFitness Competition on July 10th
   
   • I will focus on the areas of the competition that I am weakness
   • I will bench press 3x/week
   • I will do the box jump 3x/week
2. I will be able to complete 10 squats with weight in good form
   • I will begin doing corrective exercises 3/week
   • I will take a yoga class 2x week to increase my flexibility and stability
3. I will rid myself of sciatica pain
   • I will make an appointment for the week of July 12th to meet with Aaron Brooks, posture specialist
   • I will stretch for 30 minutes a day
4. In the off-season, I will not exceed 10 pounds above my contest weight.
   • I will stick to the 7 day sugar shutdown program devised by my coach. This will help me with my sugar cravings, yes I do CRAVE sugar
   • I will workout 5 day/week by doing a combination 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weight training

Weekly Goals:

• I will update my Falmouth Road Race training schedule
• I will review my Tri Fitness training and see how to improve
• I will read 1 chapter in my wellness coach manual
• I will make an appt with my training buddy to practice coaching
• I will update the Fab Fit Squad blog 3x/week
• I will take 1 yoga class/week

Each week, I will keep you up to date on how I progress on my wellness vision. Need help crafting yours. Let me know.

We’ve all heard the saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well I truly believe that, I actually have 2 apples a day usually

Source: Sustaining Creativity in a Busy Mom’s Worldbefore my workout as a nice energizing snack. Call me crazy, but some apples taste like candy to me.  Okay pick yourself up off the floor, you’re right there is no substitute for candy and an apple certainly can’t replace the taste of a M&M, but it can certainly help you fight a good sugar craving.

Apples are amazing foods, they contain about 3 grams fiber, so don’t peel off the skin. Apples are on average less than 50 calories, contain no fat and contain antioxidants, Vitamin C, potassium and polyphenols. They have been attributed to helping to reduce heart disease, cancers, type 2 diabetes. So go ahead an take a bite of a nice crispy apple. No, apple juice doesn’t count – all the good stuff has been pressed out during the manufacturing process.

Further reading:

• Apple varieties
• Superfood: Blueberries
• Jicama Apple Slaw (YUM)

Here in Boston we are holding out the we are going to have at least 1 day of NO RAIN!!! We have been stuck in a crazy weather pattern and right now the entire city is holing its breath in anticipation of a rain free day.  Do your plans include a picnic’ My do, so here are come suggestions to enjoy the day.

Condiments:

• Mustard in my opinion is the underrated condiment. I love and use it everyday!

  How Stuff Works

• Ketchup and BBQ  is OK provided you don’t drown your food in them or they don’t contain high fructose corn syrup.
• Salad Dressing– stay away from the CREAMY stuff! Go with the vinaigrette versions
• Mayo —  again creamy stay away; does the thought of coleslaw-less picnic leave you blue — mix 1/2 the amount of mayo in with some vinegar and mustard
• Pickles and relish — YUM! YUM! Give me some!!! They are awesome, enjoy!!!
• Butter — really do we have to talk about it!! I know you are saying what about but corn on the cob! Trust me on this one. Try lime juice and old bay seasoning.  Really tasty, you could also try mixing olive oil, balsamic vinegar and kosher salt.