Two weeks of rejuvenating workouts will help you feel physically and mentally strong for the remainder of 2011!  Timed to begin right after Thanksgiving and end before any Christmas travel plans begin, this two-week program will help you control stress, increase your activity during a time of year when food temptations are high, and give you a plan to stay healthy through the rest of the holiday season!

The program includes:

Ten days of group workouts (every weekday from Dec. 5 – Dec. 16)

• A “holiday survival guide” with tips for healthy food choices, increasing your physical movement, and decreasing your stress
• A discounted price – $150 (a $47 savings over regular bootcamp prices!)

Workouts will be held 4:30- 5:30 p.m. at Lucy Read Elementary Monday-Friday.

Limited to 12 people, so sign up today!   Email me at angie@leanbodysuccess.com to get on the list today.  This is the best holiday gift you will buy this season and you’ll be buying it for yourself!

In the moment you are craving a particular food (let’s use ice cream), stop and contemplate this. A food craving is essentially a form of minor discomfort or suffering. The reason that we call something a “craving” is due to its basic properties of “needing” something and being uncomfortable without it. You may be thinking right now, “Well, it’s not like I really ‘need’ it, I just ‘want’ it.” Whether you translate this craving as a “need” or a “want” doesn’t matter. The two are the same if you are using either of them to describe a craving.

The craving is a form of suffering, so the best action you can take when experiencing a craving for the ice cream, is to let yourself feel it. Understand that you are experiencing a minor discomfort (or a major one possibly) and sit with it. Take this time to feel it in every fiber of your body, listen to your thoughts as you just sit with this. Try not to distract yourself with the t.v., the radio, talking to people, or even exercising. Literally remain still and quiet and pay attention to your thoughts at the present moment. You will not only learn what this craving is associated with or attached to, you will learn how to experience the present moment. This is a very “zen” way of looking at the situation, but it’s effective when learning to grow strong within your mind and body.

Now, I will admit that some of you may or may not discover that true emotional origin of your craving on the first experience. But as you bring yourself to the present moment, let yourself feel the discomfort, your craving will pass. The more and more you do this and let the craving pass, the less you will experience these annoying suffering bouts of discomfort. You are training yourself and specifically your body to respond differently to situations rather than responding by presenting you with a craving.

In other words, if you appease your cravings each time by eating the ice cream, then you’re training your body to crave this type of appeasement. You are also training yourself to think that you only way you’ll be able to get through these moments of cravings is to eat the ice cream.

That is a sad way to live. And the worst part of all this craving and appeasing of the craving is the fact that you are usually not appeased for long and too many times, the guilty feeling comes and masks the appeasement. So what you have now is a scenario of craving, temporary appeasement, guilt, and then the cycle starts all over again. The guilt usually lasts more than a day or so as you try to alter your calorie intake, your exercise intensity, and other ways in which you may not even take note.

Do yourself a favor. When the craving comes, stay present, stay with the discomfort, let the sensations rise within you and you’ll discover the truth and the craving (suffering) will begin to decrease. If you can be courageous and take this challenge, you’ll become stronger internally and conquer much more difficult challenges later. I can promise you that!

Research and scientists have proven that recovery of muscle nutrient stores can be enhanced by consuming a specified mixture of carbohydrates and proteins. Significant glycogen (carbohydrate) storage greatly reduces the recovery time from exercise.

Consumption of protein immediately after exercise is essential to repairing the muscle tissue that has been damaged from exercise and providing the essential amino acids needed to repair the muscle tissue for the next workout.

These two ingredients are vital to repairing and preparing your body for the next workout. Athletes and fitness-striving individuals should consume a recovery drink as soon as possible after exercise or competition, and should wait no longer than one hour to do so. This is the most critical period for the replenishment of muscle glycogen and amino acid absorption.

Prograde Lean is formulated to maximize recovery for both strength and endurance athletes and individuals with weight loss goals or the anabolic phase and rebuilding phase that takes place after exercise. The longer you are in an anabolic state can result in increased muscle definition and strength for individuals and greater energy storage levels.

Recent research has found that after engaging in near maximal exercise for a short time, that we do in fact see the transient glycogen “super compensation” in ALL muscle fiber types. Your performance will suffer the next time you train and you may even lose some muscle along the way if you don’t replenish the glycogen and protein quickly.

Achieving the most rapid replenishment of muscle glycogen stores is especially important.
Here are some protein powders that I use because they are of highest quality and quickly absorbed into the digestive system.

PRE-WORKOUT PROTEINS OR SNACK MEALS:

Optimum Nutrition- 100% All Natural Whey Protein or 100% Gold Standard Whey Protein- http://www.bulknutrition.com

Biochem- Whey & Hemp Protein; Whey & Greens Protein- http://www.bodybuilding.com

Nutribiotics- Rice Protein

Pure Advantage- Pea Protein

Pure Advantage and Nutribiotics is least expensive at http://www.vitacost.com

POST-WORKOUT PROTEINS:

Prograde Lean – http://brinkleynutritionadvantage.com/lean

Here are some alternatives for a post-workout meal if whey protein doesn’t agree with your digestive system:

Nutiva Organic Hemp Shake – http://www.iherb.com

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Protein – http://www.iherb.com

There is also a high protein & carb nutrition bar that can also be used in place of dinner or shakes called

Prograde Cravers. They are very tasty too! More nutrients and higher quality protein than your average protein bar. – http://brinkleynutritionadvantage.com/cravers

Many of us allow our dress size or the shape of our body determine our self-worth. Is your happiness dependent on the size of your clothes?  You may be saying no, and truly aware, that this is not you.  Or your “no” may be that of denial. Here is a valid and eye-opening way to become more aware of how much your physical appearance is related to your feelings of self-worth and ways to improve your mindset.

Listen to your thoughts.  Hone in on the thoughts running through your mind throughout the day.  We are constantly thinking, but we are rarely listening.  It’s amazing what you will hear yourself saying.  Are you beating yourself up for eating an unhealthy lunch or dinner according to your standards? Are you telling yourself that you “shouldn’t” have skipped your workout and judging yourself harshly as lazy?  I love this one:  Are you criticizing the lean and fit women you notice throughout the day? Are you discrediting these healthy physiques to their genetic gift while rationalizing your genetic poison?  Come on!

Attempts to rationalize our thoughts to support our inner beliefs is something we all do.  But this thought process is more detrimental than you realize.  Judging yourself in comparison to someone else will always lead you down a path of self-destruction and sabotage any effort for true happiness.

In this state, the mindset is denying any expression of  positive energy and essential loving energy.  Negativity brings on sadness and depression. One whom is feeling depressed and unhappy is driven to eat unhealthy foods and neglect their body. Judge, Judge, Judge, Punish, Punish, Punish.

This is all a part of a complex personal belief system based on years of experiences and influences, so I’m going to simplify this. YOU have created your own personal belief system based on goals, plans, solutions, as well as opinions, judgments, stories, and criticisms. YOU must take responsibility for the results of the mindset you have built. YOU are the leader of your thoughts and the only one in control. If you aren’t in control, who is?  No, it’s not satan.

YOU ARE THE CREATOR AND THE DESTROYER.

Listen to yourself. What are you are saying? Pay close attention and remember:

YOU ARE THE BOSS.

YOU ARE THE BOSS.

YOU ARE THE BOSS.

Be aware of the judgments and criticisms you are placing on yourself and others.  Replace that negativity and destructiveness with positive thinking. Even if you don’t believe it yet, replace the negative with the positive. You believe, you just don’t know it yet.  Take responsibility for the workings and the results of your mind and ultimately the way in which you treat your body. Appreciate and respect others and yourself. Give your body and your mind true compassion and love and the ways of healthiness will naturally follow. Eating well, physically challenging your body, positive energy, and happiness will appear with motivation to take care of yourself.