Think Smart

The holiday season is full of parties and delicious foods. It can be hard to dial in on your willpower when you’re constantly surrounded by temptations.

Shaun Nibert, the Head Trainer at Burn Boot Camp Greenville, is giving us his top tips on how to take on the holiday party. By learning how to navigate your holiday party the right way, you’ll have fun and stay on track.

What Not to Eat

Before you head to the dessert platter or the bar, make sure you know what to avoid. The first item on our list to avoid is eggnog. Eggnog is full of sugars and heavy cream that will ruin progress fast.

Casseroles are known for being full of artificial ingredients, like cream and sugar. Try to avoid these to the best of your ability. Even if they do have vegetables in the name like “broccoli casserole” – steer clear.

Additionally, turkey skin is another slow killer. Turkey skin contains high amounts of sodium and unnecessary seasonings that will cause bloating and dehydration.

Finally, avoid all breads and simple carbs. This means no stuffing, no cakes and no cookies.

What to Eat

If you’re actually hungry, you’ll want to treat these foods as fuel. Flocking to the vegetable and fruit trays will fill you with fiber and keep you full longer.

Try to find lean meats for your protein source. Chicken breasts, skinless turkey and certain hams can be a great way to fill up without going overboard.

Prepare For The Holidays

Don’t just dive mindlessly into the holiday party scene, prepare before you go. To prevent cravings and the urge to eat everything in sight, eat a meal of whole foods.

If you aren’t super hungry, eat an apple as a snack. The apple will help curb your appetite by absorbing natural, complex carbs.

Another rule to adhere to is the three-bite rule. If you’re eyeing something, take three-bites and move on. This will help you get your fix in without overindulging.

What about alcohol? It’s best to avoid alcohol, but if you’re going to have a drink or two, drink clear drinks. Vodka and soda is a great, low calorie option, along with some wine and spritzer.

Make sure that whatever you end up eating, you make it to camp the next day. Shaun recommends going the extra limit by getting there early to warm up to hold yourself accountable.

At Burn Boot Camp there is no day one. Don’t make excuses for yourself during the holiday. Maintain your lifestyle all year-long with this guide on how to eat smart at your holiday party!

Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 pm.

Train Your Brain

Life is full of highs and lows. Falling victim to your problems can be easy, but our problems teach us to persevere and get stronger.

Tre Lahman, Head Trainer at Burn Boot Camp Winston-Salem, is hoping to inspire women by sharing her story. Postpartum depression and anxiety are real issues, and often times, it’s all about changing your mindset.

Become Stronger

Tre has been a personal trainer for several years now. She’s spent much of her time training group fitness classes before joining the Burn Boot Camp community.

Tre was at the peak of her career when she became pregnant unexpectedly. Additionally, she dealt with constant sickness and pain that worsened throughout her pregnancy.

Finally, after experiencing a rough delivery, she gave birth to a happy, healthy baby. Unfortunately, 7-weeks after giving birth, she was hit with postpartum depression, anxiety and insomnia.

Her Support System

Tre says her family, friends and church helped her overcome her mental blocks. During her journey back to mental health, she began reading blogs about Burn Boot Camp.

In March, she tried Burn Boot Camp out with several of her friends. She immediately felt freed of her depression and anxiety.

Tre recalls that building relationships prompted her to focus less on herself and more on others. Burn offered her a community to be apart of.

After several months of being a member, she became the head trainer. She went from feeling unable to lead herself to leading hundreds of women.

The Take-Away

Exercise has proven to help lessen the affects of anxiety. By moving more, you’ll be less likely to suffer from symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Not only that but Burn Boot Camp has been designed to create a community of women who uplift each other. We high-five and encourage each other because we’re determined to become stronger.

Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 pm.

Step Up To The Challenge

We can lose focus of our goals fast when we become busy with life. Luckily, we can incorporate our active lifestyle into our workday easily.

Chris Stephenson, who is the Head Trainer at Burn Boot Camp Wake Forest, wants to challenge us to reach 10,000 steps at work, every day.

Get Moving

Currently, our world is always moving at light speed. Instead of taking the easy way out and parking in the first spot, park in the last spot. You’ll get in the habit and move more!

Use the stairs to your advantage. Just because you walked a few extra steps from your car to the building doesn’t mean you stop there.

Additionally, get creative when you take the stairs. Do some lunges or speed up your pace to get your heart rate up.

Another tip is to get active during your lunch break. Take a walk or use it as your time to get a quick workout in. You’ll regain focus and mental clarity to get right back into working hard.

Get your coworkers involved by offering “walking meetings” or by setting goals together. This will create healthy relationships and help you stay active.

Don’t Stop This Winter

The temperatures are dropping, but that’s not stopping us. We’re athletes here at Burn Boot Camp and we’ll continue to crush goals.

Try to get outside if the temperatures aren’t dangerously cold. This gets blood pumping and can boost your mood! Take the dogs for a walk or have a family outing at the park.

If you have family coming to visit, don’t use it as an excuse to skip camp. Bring your friends and family along! Saturdays are free to the public, and we are always offering a 14 day free test drive.

Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 pm.

If ANYONE knows how difficult it is to constantly eat a clean diet, it is me! As you may know, I have the pleasure of instructing the most motivated people in the world and sometimes my nutritional motivation suffers. So, I am going to let you in on a little secret. I have the sweetest sweet tooth you could possibly imagine. Every time I see a chocolate chip cookie my will power kicks in to over drive!

I tell you that to tell you this, you are not alone. Ultimately, Everyone has urges and everyone gives into those urges. Overall, it is the kind of habits you practice 98% of the time that truly matter. So here is a list of 5 nutritional rules to live by that will help you practice healthy habits the critical 98% of the time.

1. The Half Plate Rule – 1/2 your plate consists of veggies and fruits and the other half is split between 1/4 healthy carbs and 1/4 lean protein.

2. 5 ingredients or less – Check your nutrition labels for ingredients. If your food has 5 ingredients or less you are definitely good to go!

3. Calories to Fat Calories Deficit – Look at not only the calories but more importantly calories from fat on the nutritional information label. If you can consistently eat foods that have a difference of 100 between the two numbers those food choices are very healthy.

4. 6 inch plates – Most of us were brought up to clean our plate. If you have a giant 10″ plate you are more likely to demolish every bit of food on it. But if you clean a 6″ inch plate you are still satisfying that habit while taking in half of the amount of calories.

5. Forks down rule – Put your fork down between every bite, chew the food completely, swallow, and then take another bite. Eating slower will allow your nervous system to tell your brain when truly have had enough to eat. If you eat too fast your nervous system lags behind!

I’m always on Facebook, doing cool stuff and posting tricks and tips like these! So follow along!

Think Pink

For the entire month of October, Burn Boot Camp is thinking pink. We are honoring survivors and fighting for a cure by posting positive messages and sharing stories.

Melissa Howard, a member at Burn Boot Camp Harrisburg, is sharing her Breast Cancer story. Her mission is to empower and inspire women like her!

Melissa’s Story

Melissa was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27. The diagnosis came as a shock because Breast Cancer did not run in her family.

In 2007, Melissa had a Lumpectomy which helped her ability to have children. Finally, after five years of treatment and hormone therapy, she and her husband  were able to have a little girl.

Additionally, Melissa decided to join Burn Boot Camp last May after her fight with Breast Cancer. Not to mention, Melissa feels excitement to go to the gym now!

Melissa finishes her segment with these words: “I’m praying for you. Don’t be afraid to give up the fight. In addition, find a way to join the community like Burn.”

Positive women empower other women! Stay tuned in to Burn TV for more amazing stories this month.

Building Confidence

Burn Boot Camp is a fit community of women who do extraordinary things on a daily basis. From making a 5:30 am camp to working a full day, they’re dedicated.

We strive to achieve confidence to live a healthy lifestyle, and that’s why Erin Studdard, Owner of Burn Boot Camp South Durham, is talking about Stress Urinary Incontinence. It’s a topic that some of us might blush at the sound of,  but almost every woman has experienced it at some point in time!

Erin walks us through exercises to prevent stress on the bladder during workouts, while helping us build confidence to handle it!

Exercises

With all of the demonstrated exercises, it’s important to tighten the core and pelvic muscles. Don’t forget to breathe!

Glute Bridge 

Wall Sit Squat

Jumping Jacks

Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 pm.

Every day life can get hectic, but it’s not an excuse to skip your workout. Burst training is an effective way to spike your heart rate while engaging muscles. The workout includes 4 rounds of 4 exercises for 20 seconds of activity followed by a 20 second break.

Devan Kline, Founder and CEO of Burn Boot Camp, conducts a Full-Body Burst Training workout that can be used anywhere and anytime. Both exercises and modifications can be seen in the video below.

Exercises:

1. High Knees
2. Power Planks
3. Heismans
4. Mountain Climbers

Don’t let a time crunch slow you down! Keep Moving!

Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 pm.

Most people don’t understand the importance of good posture and end up settling for what feels best. Even if slouching feels more comfortable on your upper body, it can be affecting your spine in a multitude of ways because the spine is intricately designed and meant to maintain a certain shape.

Jeff Winkers, Head Trainer with Burn Boot Camp LaCrosse, gives us all we need to know about why good posture is important and how to improve poor posture.

It’s Easier Than You Think

While it may seem impossible to fix poor posture, simple changes like tightening your abs and tucking your tail bone will help to greatly improve posture.

Some exercises that help with posture are:

-Super Man: this move engages back muscles to increase strength to sit up straight

-Band Pull Apart: this move pulls back muscles and shoulders upward

-Shrugs: this last move engages shoulders

Don’t Get Stuck With Poor Posture!

Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 pm.

While it may be tempting to want to take it easy on vacation, it’s still important to stick to your fitness routine. Most people assume that vacation workouts means boring exercises, which won’t get you motivated.

Mike Harper, Head Trainer at Burn Boot Camp Frisco, uses a pool, park and swing set as areas we can use stay fit! Luckily, with the moves below, you can stay active using moves like the ones we do in Camp.

Get Started

The swing set can be used with moves similar to the TRX bands. The moves on the swing set include several exercises from Single-Leg Squats to Push-Ups.  A Full Body Workout can be done completely using the swing!

Frisbees are the next big tool – Mike starts by using two frisbees as sliders in the park. Now you can Mod-Up with those Mountain Climbers or Push-Ups. In addition to sliders, Frisbees can be used in the pool for resistance exercises that get your heart rate up while you cool off.

There’s no excuse to stop moving – even on vacation!

Ready for more information on how to Get Better Every Day? Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 pm!

Diane Eldridge is 44 with 5 children! She started her transformation in October of 2015 – losing 130 lbs total.

Being a competitive person, Diane made the choice to change her life with Burn Boot Camp. In the first two weeks, she began seeing results – and she keeps crushing her goals. Even her sons love Burn Boot Camp when they participate in Kidz Camp!

More Than Physical

Deciding to change your life for the better can be a difficult thought to process. Diane describes her experience with beginning her health journey, saying “you walk in feeling a little intimidated by women who look like bodybuilders, thinking that’ll never be me, but you never know what other people see in you.”

Her advice for her audience is to “just do it,” because while it can be intimidating to begin a health journey, it changes your life for the better.

Crush Your Goals Daily!

Tune into Burn TV LIVE every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 pm.