Switching it up today and giving you a few things that are pretty weird, but can be helpful as well.

“Boil” eggs in the oven

This one has been around for awhile, but it is tremendous. There are some people in the world that mess up boiled eggs every time. Me being one of them. This way never fails.

Put your eggs in a muffin pan, bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Done.

Help with balance

If you are doing stretches or maybe even one legged deadlifts, you might have some trouble balancing. There are certain things you can do. Stare at something that doesn’t move to give you an unmoving reference point. Keeping your ab muscles braced helps as well. But give this a try. Pull on your ear. Sounds silly, looks silly, but it works.

Slow down your eating

One of the tips I learned from the Emotional Eating seminar we had while back, was to chew your food 50 times. That really does help. My record is 38 chews, still working on it. Something I learned from being in a cast for 6 months is to eat with your weak hand. My right arm was in a cast, I’m right handed, so eating with my left hand was very inefficient and slower.

Stop the sweating

You know that “I’ve already showered, got dressed but I can’t stop sweating” feeling? It’s not so great. Try running cold water on the inside of your wrists. Because of the high concentration of blood vessels in that area, it can help cool your entire body.

Getting claustrophobic?

I’m slightly claustrophobic. I’m not sure I could ever ride in a smart car. But if I did, I would make sure to bring a green apple.The Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation of Chicago found that smelling a green apple can help soothe feelings of claustrophobia.

Use the express elevator

Happy Father’s Day weekend! One of the greatest honors I have ever received was the day I got to be a dad.

I was also blessed to be raised by what science has discovered was the best dad ever. Scientists may have discovered the same about your dad. 

So as a tribute to all the single moms out there who are tasked with the incredible responsibility of being mom and dad I want to offer a special deal. For our boot camp that starts on July 1, all single moms can get a month of unlimited boot camp for $99. The last day for this deal is Monday June 17th 2013. 

To take advantage of this deal, just e-mail info@HuntsvilleBootCamp.com I will set it up for you. 

Have you ever wanted to try yoga? This is the first year I’ve started doing yoga and I have really enjoyed it. I’m not counting the awful experiences I had with P90X yoga back in the day. To me that yoga was boring AND painful. I can take one or the other, but I can’t take both in one workout. And it lasts an hour and a half!

Sorry, I was scarred by that DVD. Mitzi Connell, my yoga instructor, is organizing Rocket City Yoga Week as part of Healthy Huntsville 2013. It is a week of all sorts of different styles, instructors, and settings for yoga. The best part is that it is completely free. All you need to bring is a yoga mat and it starts next week, June 17-23.

There is yoga for beginners, yoga for teens, hot yoga, flow yoga, restorative yoga. There is even a night of yoga and chocolate. Just putting that out there. These are all classes taught by Huntsville’s best yoga instructors, so this is a great opportunity.

If nothing else, you should plan on attending the finale of Rocket City Yoga Week.  Yoga underneath the Saturn V Rocket at the Space and Rocket Center. How many times do you get to do that? Should be pretty cool.

We hosted an Emotional Eating Seminar this past weekend. The session was led by Holley Porter-Wright, who is a certified Health Coach and accomplished yoga instructor at Yoga Hom.

For the people who attended it was a wonderful and mind opening experience. One of the biggest things they got out of the class was that they are not alone in their struggles with food. Everyone there had very similar hold ups and sticking points with food.

Below are some of the tidbits I picked up and thought you might benefit from reading:

- A big step to conquering emotional eating is when you can distinguish from being physically hungry or just mentally hungry

-Emotional eating occurs because we are not meeting our needs

-Ask the question, “What do I need?” from the following areas of your life:

1. Body

2. Mind

3. Emotions

4. Higher Self

-You can’t eat compulsively if you are aware of your food and if you are enjoying your food

-Sit down when you eat (very important)

-Have you ever made a lasting change from berating yourself? Probably not. Long term change comes from having self compassion.

-There are no forbidden foods

-Emotional eaters tend to be huge givers who take of everyone but themselves

-Food is not a place for moral judgements. You aren’t good because you ate good that day and you aren’t bad because you had an off day

-Have built-in strategies that are non-food related in place to be ready when emotional eating starts. (Exercise, reading, music, dancing, etc…)

-Try to stay away from “I’ll be happy when _____.” statements. That is the carrot on the stick that you will never reach.

-An exercise to try and slow your eating down and improve your digestion is to chew your food 50 times before swallowing.

-If it’s a matter of will power, it’s only a matter of time until you give in.

That is just a few of the insights she gave us. The main theme Holley really drove home, is that you should listen to the signals your body is giving you. If you would like to get in touch with Holley and learn more about her health coaching or yoga services, her e-mail address is holleypwyoga@gmail.com

Your wishes have been granted! We have had several requests to have another Saturday morning class. We will be starting a brand new class on June 15th called Bare Bones Boot Camp. No weights, no mat, just bring some water and be ready to work.

This class will be high energy and fast paced, so you will be burning a ton of calories and having a great time doing so. This class is for people looking to:

-burn some fat;

-get in better shape for a 5k or other races

-just looking to get your Saturday started in a healthy way

Here are the details:

Where- Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville

When- Saturdays 8-9am for 8 weeks starting June 15 and ending Aug 3.

How to sign up- go here —>Bare Bones

Also, don’t forget about our Healthy Body Image Teen Camp starting on Tuesday June 11th. Really looking to change some lives with that one.

We design our programs and services around what you want. So if there is something you need help with or would like to see, please let us know!

I was speaking to a group not too long ago and I came to the potentially dangerous “Are there any questions?” part of the talk. I have had some blush inducing moments there, so I always get a little nervous.

But this time, it was not blush inducing. It was more anger/frustration inducing. He actually had a comment and he said “Well we can’t all be successful.”

What? Why not? It drives me crazy when people say stuff like that. You may not be able to have 6 pack abs when you are 60 years old or run a 5k in 15 minutes, but you can do better than you are now.

If you start with that attitude, then I guess you are right. You won’t be successful, walking around with a self defeatist attitude all the time. Things are not that bad!

My wife is a nurse and she mainly deals with older patients. She met a patient yesterday that has let herself go to the point that she will probably be bed ridden for the rest of her life. This person is not that old, but she is facing what I would consider a nightmare because she neglected her health for so long.

Don’t you think she trade anything she has to be in a body that could move? A body where she can take care of herself? I’m sure she wishes she would have taken a few more walks and made better food choices, while she still had it in her to do so.

Don’t let that be you. Are you healthy enough to move? Then you can be successful and you can reach your goal. Someone in a hospital bed is wishing they could do the things that you take for granted. Stop doubting yourself and start helping yourself.

Here is your action step. Do one thing today that gets you closer to your goals. Whether it is big or small, do something to move towards your goals. Repeat this process every day and imagine where you could be in a month, a year, ten years.

If you need help coming up with your action step, please let me know how I can help.

Just in case you have ever needed a picture of tumeric

Let’s face it, eating healthy can get boring. So why not spice things up? Using the right spices can not only make your food more exciting, but it can also give your metabolism a little boost. Here is a list of spices you should give a try:

Garlic-One of the sticking points for fat loss is the body holding onto toxins. Let the garlic clear out your some toxins to get you ready to lose the fat. You may lose some friends along with the fat if you don’t bring a toothbrush with you.

Ginger-A certain ginger haired man can help you lose weight, but so can the spice. Ginger gives food an Asian taste, plus gives you a fat loss boost.

Tumeric-Sounds like a terrible chemical , but is actually really good for you. The main way this helps is by lowering your blood sugar and cutting down on cravings.

Cayenne pepper-A study found that some of the participants increased their metabolism by 25% by putting cayenne pepper on their food. The study did not say if it was due to the subjects sprinting to get something to drink or not.

Cinnamon-Another good way to get rid of toxins and improve digestion. Null and void if you are getting your cinnamon through Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Black pepper-Another great metabolism booster, plus the positive sneezing side effect clears out your sinuses.

Chili powder-Has a similar effect as cayenne pepper. Great for fat loss and a good way to cook thinly sliced carrots.

What are your favorite spices?

The teenage years are an extremely hard time for girls. We want to make them a little easier. We are offering a Teenage Girls Boot Camp this summer starting on June 11th. They will not only learn about exercise, but also about proper body image, the dangers of fad diets, proper nutrition without restriction, and much more.

Our goal is to stress the importance of being healthy, over the unrealistic and unhealthy images they are bombarded with through TV, the internet, and magazines. This will be an accepting environment, free from judgment and ridicule.

The class is twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville for 8 weeks. Registration is open now to the first 15 who sign up.

Teenage Girl Camp

We have had a few donors sponsor teens who could otherwise not afford it. If you are also willing to sponsor a teen, please let me know.

One of the most common questions people ask me is, “What do you do at your boot camps?” They are asking what types of exercises we do. But deep down I know they truly don’t care. They don’t!

What they really want to know is, “Can you get me results?” The answer to that is yes of course! I could tell you about all the fancy, awesome exercises we do. The equipment we use, the variety of workouts, etc… In the end, what we do is get you unstuck.

Here is a video starring my dog, that demonstrates that.

Getting Unstuck, starring Shug the dog

That is what we do. We coach you, make adjustments, encourage you, and make sure you reach your potential. You have everything you need right now to be successful, we just help you bring it out.