January 2011 Nutrition Challenge

It’s Monday … and besides the fact that it’s the start of a new week, you should be extra excited because this week, we’re holding our first monthly nutrition challenge!

Let me quickly explain the monthly nutrition challenge concept:

For a week out of every month, we’ll announce a nutrition ‘challenge’. Over the next six months, we’ll touch on a ‘pilar’ of good eating for a week out of every month … and if you take every challenge, after six months, you’ll have build a foundation of healthy eating.

This month’s challenge:

Eat at least one serving of vegetables and/or fruits with every meal

Notes:

  • One serving of vegetables or fruits – according to nutrition.about.com – is equal to about one-half cup. Greens like spinach and lettuce have a serving size equal to one full cup. One serving of sliced fruit is equal to one-half cup; however a single piece of fruit, such as an apple or an orange counts as one serving.
  • Preferred veggies are dark and colorful. Broccoli, spinach, collard greens, are all great choices to start – but most importantly, just get a serving of veggies every time you eat.
  • Best fruits choices are berries, cherries, apples, pears, peaches and plums – but again, most importantly, just get a couple of servings of fruit in each day.

Good luck!

Forest 

P.S. I have one more spot left for this coming Saturday’s free boot camp … drop me a note asap if you’d like to grab it.

Special Announcement: FREE Boot Camp Workout Saturday January 29th @ 10am!

Thinking about signing up for one of our fitness boot camps?

I’m holding a FREE boot camp workout on Saturday, January 29th @ 10am – it’s the perfect chance to come out and try a workout if you’ve been ‘on the fence’ –
Quick note, though – I actually had to turn folks away for the last one I held in mid-December; the class filled up in less than three days (I have room exactly 12 people for this workout). So if you’re interested, make sure to reserve your spot asap!

5 Minute ‘Crunchless’ Abs (new video)

Cool new video for you to check out – it’s a ‘Crunchless’ ab circuit that’ll take you about five minutes to do –

See, it turns out that Crunches are just okay for working your abs. Although a wicked Crunch circuit can give you a great ab burn (and that’s why I still include ’em in some of my workouts), Crunches simply aren’t very functional.
According to Stuart McGil, one of the world’s leading back and spine health experts, in every day life, “the abdominals are braces.” When doing any kind of athletic movement, “the spine is in a neutral posture, not flexed, and the abdominal muscles are contracted to brace the spine.”
Which means the best way — for both your back and your beach body — to work your midsection is to do movements that challenge the muscles to perform the way they’re designed and expected to work in real life, not to train muscles in isolation.
The Plank to Push Up and Wood Chop exercises in the video below provide a couple of great examples; they are very functional movements that force you to use your abs strongly as stabilizers – but also require that you use a bunch of other muscle groups at the same time and in a more ‘real world’ movement pattern:

That’s it for this week! Keep training hard and talk soon!

Forest

P.S. We’re putting together some really cool deals for you with several businesses we’ve partnered with in the local area. We’ve got a chiropractor and esthetician in on the program, as well several other local retail stores (with more in the works). The best part is that these deals are exclusive for Forest Vance Training, Inc. clients. The value of the entire package is going to be several hundred dollars in total. We’re just finishing up the details and should have the program ready to roll out next week – so stay tuned!

MY Daily Diet + New ‘Virtual Pro Shop’

Hope your 2011 is off to a great start! Couple new cool things for ‘ya this week:

MY daily diet

My diet is geared towards the same goals you probably have – optimum health, weight maintainence and high energy – so hopefully it’ll help you figure out a reasonable and effective plan for yourself. (If you want to use it as a model, though, you’ll probably have to adjust the portions down quite a bit … I weigh about 245 pounds 🙂 ) Click the link below to check it out:

New ‘virtual pro shop’ with nutritional supplement section and more

I get a ton of questions about various fitness products, most often nutritional supplements.

My take on supps is that you need to have your diet and training program dialed in first and foremost … but once you do, they can help you reach your fitness goals a little (or even a lot) faster. And certainly, protein/meal-replacement bars and shakes are a convenient and healthy way to get the nutrition you need on the run …

So I set up a new section of my website with ‘ FVT approved’ supps, fitness gear, and more –

Here’s the link for the main page – you’ll find links to recommended supps, fitness gear, apparel, and all my workout books and DVD’s:

If you’d like to hop straight to the supplement section, click the link below:

And of course, if you have any questions about this stuff, feel free to drop me a note …

*I also have a little area set up at the studio dedicated to this new project (mostly thanks to my great new assistant Sam) … so if you want to see any of the products in person, you can check them out there, too*

Thats it for this week! Train hard and train smart –

Forest

January 2011 Challenge Workout Results

Here’s the January 2011 Challenge Workout one more time in case you missed it:


———-

10 Push Ups (knees for gals, standard for guys)
20 KB Swings
30 Walking Lunges (30 total steps)
40 Cross Body Mountain Climbers (one knee-to-elbow move = one rep)
50 Body Weight Squats

Do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes


———-


And the results (score is total number of rounds + total number of exercises (all prescribed reps) finished; I also listed each location separately as East Sac folks had a slight disadvantage going up and down a set of stairs before doing each set of lunges):

Land Park

MG 4+4
SS 4+3
ES 4+2
LB 4+2
KG 4+1
SR 4+1
SK 4
LA 3+4
MA 3+3
SB 3+3
CK 3+3
EZ 3+2
AS 3+3
AA 3
PT 2+2
NP 1+3
East Sac
AG 4
SG 4
SP 3+4
NG 3+4
AK 3+3
EP 3+3
MB 3+1
PH 3
VC 3
Great job guys! Keep up the good work!
Forest