180° Kettlebell Gym

Every parent wants good things for their children: a positive outlook on life, a healthy respect for authority, a strong sense of self, a disease-free body…a healthy body weight.

Despite our best intentions, a recent report suggests that for the first time in two centuries, the current generation of children may have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

With all the advances in medicine, how could this possibly be true? The blame falls squarely on today’s toxic food environment.

In short, your kids are eating too much junk.

And who can blame them? Junk food tastes great.

The good news is that healthy food also tastes great. Take these simple tips and transform your child’s diet into one that is packed with good health.

1) Add Color

Adding bright and colorful fruits and veggies to your child’s plate will get their diet on the fast track to health. Fresh fruits and veggies are filled with fiber, vitamins and minerals that are essential to good health.

If your kids are resistant then make it fun. Serve veggies with salad dressing as a dip. Cut fresh fruit in the colors of the rainbow and place them on a skewer. Serve a color themed meal – all green, all red or all orange. Use your imagination and you’ll come up with an endless number of ways to make fruits and veggies fun to eat.

2) Think Whole Foods

Processed foods are the biggest problem with our modern diet. Packaged and refined food products are devitalized and filled with empty calories that quickly lead to weight gain. Unfortunately, processed foods make up a large portion of the diet of many children.

Train your kids to opt for whole foods, rather than packaged ones. Whole foods are foods that are in their natural state. An apple. A piece of sprouted grain bread spread with natural peanut butter. A piece of hormone-free chicken. A bowl of beans. You get the idea.

3) Use Wholesome Sweeteners

Refined sugar and corn syrup are packed into many of the foods that your kids love. But wait, there are more wholesome sweeteners available – sweeteners that add vitamins and minerals rather than empty calories. Use the following rather than white sugar or corn syrup:

• Sucanat: This pure, dried sugar can juice retains its molasses content. Use it to replace white sugar in baking.
• Pure Maple Syrup: Forget the “fake” syrups containing corn syrup. Pure maple syrup contains potassium, calcium and some amino acids.
• Brown Rice Syrup: Use this dark syrupy sweetener instead of corn syrup. It takes longer to digest and won’t spike your blood sugar like refined sugar.
• Dates: Throw a few seeded dates into your blender to sweeten your smoothie rather than adding white sugar.
• honey: good ole bee spit is a good sweetener for your smoothies, tea, and oatmeal.

4) Make Smart Substitutions

Kids love pizza and pasta and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and that’s not going to change any time soon. Rather than fight your kids on their favorites, try making smart substitutions to make their favorites more nutritious.

• Pizza: Up the nutritional content of your pizza by opting for wheat crust over white, adding veggies to the toppings and sticking with lean meat toppings.
• Pasta: Use sprouted grain or whole grain pasta rather than traditional white pasta. Add veggies to your pasta sauce. Stick with red sauce, since white sauce is so high in fat.
• PB&J: A PB&J, made with white bread using sugar-filled peanut butter and corn syrup-filled jelly, is fairly void of any real nutritional value. Try the PB&J Makeover recipe below instead for a sandwich that will provide real wholesome fuel for your child’s day.

5) Ban Sugary Drinks

One of the best things that you can do for your child’s good health is to instill in them a love for water rather than sugary drinks. Soda pop and juices are filled with empty calories that encourage weight gain.

The easiest way to do this is to stock your house with lots of pure, filtered water. Don’t have fruit drinks or soda pop readily available so that they grow accustom to drinking only water.

While I presented these tips as improvements to be made to your child’s diets, these tips will also do wonders for your diet. Try these 5 tips out for 30 days and I guarantee you’ll look and feel better.

Parents all want good things for their children. Now how about doing something good for yourself as well? You are your child’s biggest role model on how to live, for better or worse.

Treat yourself right by calling or emailing today to get started on an exercise program that will change your life for the best.

Open to the public!  Fun run!   Come and be challenged!

Saturday , May 21st with a 5k, 10k or half marathon starting from the 180 Kettlebell Gym in North Branch. You are welcome to ride your bike if you cannot run the course.

The run is open to the public, free will cash donations to MS encouraged (we are raising money for National MS Society) refreshments will be provided, course will be marked.

7:30 am start for the half marathon and 8:30 am start for the 10k/5k. It is a fun run therefore no times will be recorded.

The encouraging atmosphere will drive you forward, and keep you going to finish strong!
Look forward to seeing your face there!

PS. If you are attending please send an email to 180kbellgym@gmail.com

How would you like to be 50 pounds lighter 12 months from now?

50 pounds comes out to about 3 pants sizes.

Can you image how you would look 3 sizes smaller? You’d look like a whole new, younger person.

It’s actually much easier than you think.

I’m not talking about invasive, costly surgery, dangerous pills or potions, or grueling routines.

All it takes is losing one pound each week. One measly pound.

Hang with me for a minute and I will break it down mathematically. A pound is 3,500 calories—spread that over 7 days and you need a 500 calorie deficit each day to lose 1 pound in a week.

Your 500 calorie deficit can be done by a combination of increased calorie exertion (exercise) as well as a decrease in calories consumed (eating less).

Follow these steps:

• First, record your normal weekly exercise – look at everything from walking to participating in sports to exercising in the gym. This is your starting point. From here you’ll need to burn an additional 3500 calories on top of your normal weekly exercise.If you don’t currently exercise, then any new activity will count towards your 3500 calorie weekly goal.
• Second, record your normal weekly food intake – this may be an eye-opener when you see how many calories you eat in a day. Record everything honestly, since you are only cheating yourself by not recording everything. Calculate the total number of calories that you eat in an average day.
• Now divide the 3500 calories between your activity list and your food list. You could choose to eliminate 1000 calories each week and burn off an additional 2500. Or you may decide to burn 3000 calories and eat 500 fewer calories.

Here are 7 simple ways to cut 250 calories:

1. Drink plain coffee instead of a sweetened holiday coffee drink. Flavored coffee drinks are delicious but filled with way too much sugar. Drop 250 calories (or more) when you stick with plain coffee or tea instead of sugar-filled holiday coffee drinks.
2. Just say NO! to the holiday treats. A single slice of fruitcake may seem innocent enough, besides everyone is eating them at the office meeting, why shouldn’t you? You know that all those holiday treats are packed with fat and calories. For each tempting treat that you refuse to eat, imagine the 250 calories falling off of your waistline, and smile to yourself.
3. Jog for 30 minutes. Want in on a little secret? The hardest part about a simple 30 minute jog is the act of getting your shoes on and walking out the door. It’s true.
4. Exchange 20 oz of regular soda for water. You know that soda is filled with tons of sugar, so why are you still drinking it? Every time you crave an ice cold cola picture swallowing spoonfuls of white sugar. That’s probably the easiest way to weight gain. Stick with water and kiss those extra calories goodbye.
5. Swim laps for 30 minutes. If your response to my jogging suggestion was ‘I have bad joints’, then you are in luck. Swimming is one of the best aerobic activities you can do, and it is impact-free. When you swim you recruit your entire body, a process which requires lots of energy—AKA calories.
6. Eat an apple instead of a cookie. Do you always go for something sweet after dinner? While your first instinct may be to reach for a cookie or a bowl of ice cream, why not consider what nature has to offer? Fruit is sweet, natural and lower in calories than traditional desserts.
7. Come give my fitness routine a try. I have the whole calorie-burning equation down to a science, and I’d love nothing more than to help you achieve your fitness goal. My workouts have been known to burn up to 500 calories at a time, so what are you waiting for?

Losing 50 pounds in 12 months is very possible. Simply use the tips above to create your daily 500 calorie deficit and you’ll be shedding the weight in no time.

And if you’d rather have me do most of the work for you, then call or email to set up your no obligation consultation.

When you work with me, there’s a good chance that those 50 pounds will come falling off in less than 12 months. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?

New Day

It’s raining.  Thankfully its not snow! Would love the sun after this LONG winter.  As I’m sure you would too!

I recently had opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings with a few friends of mine and grow closer to them in a real way.  We opened up and were sharing how leaning on one another is not a weakness but actually a strength and a much needed thing for us today. 

Here are 5 thoughts from that refreshing meeting …

1.      Encourage everyone that has a heartbeat. Consider the person that may not look so friendly or be upbeat all the time.   (You never know what they are going through and you may be a real blessing in their life.)

2.    Open up and don’t fear what man can do to you. (It just might be the medicine you need.)

3.    Take the opportunity to be a blessing.  Be a giver.  Don’t always be on the receiving end. (It will revolutionize your life.)

4.    Share one of your smiles (there are people that have a hard time smiling ( =         Go brighten their day!

5.    Listen and be gentle (bull and China Shop don’t mix well)

 Thanks for your time  reading this and if you ever need help with your fitness needs please email me and we will find a program that works for you!

Jodi Molitor