Tag Archives: fitness

Blake Dykes, Columns

Motivational Monday: Killin’ cardio with rejuvenating smoothie recipe

Leave a comment

By Blake Dykes

Well, it’s that dreaded day of the week again. I hope you all had a great weekend, and were able to steer clear of those foods we talked about on Friday. Since weekends are a pretty big downfall to most people’s health, today’s workout is going to be a little harder than usual, but make sure you stick with it.

Killin’ Cardio

  • 100 jumping jacks

  • 50 jump squats

  • 100 mountain climbers

  • One- minute wall it

  • 100 jumping jacks

  • Five minutes of running the stairs

  • 50 crunches

  • 75 jumping jacks

  • Two minutes of high knees

  • 20 push ups

This workout is more than likely going to leave you drained, so make sure you fuel your body with the right foods. Try this smoothie recipe:

– one cup frozen fruit (no added sugars, just simple, organic, frozen fruit) your choice

– ½ cup almond milk (add more or less depending on your liking)

– one TBs peanut butter or peanut butter powder

– one and ½ TBs of Stevia or honey

* Keep in mind that you can adjust the following ingredients to your desired taste, this is just the recipe that I like.

You get all your nutrients with this recipe; calcium, fruits, and protein.

One more thing I wanted to share with you. To find out how your weight fluctuates based upon the food you are eating, take your current weight, multiple it by 12. If you eat more than that number you are more apt to gain weight, if you eat less than you are more likely to lose weight. Keep in mind that’s not taking into count the amount of exercise you get.

Lastly, keep this in mind when you’re considering skipping a practice or a workout this week, or any day for that matter.

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” – Tim Duncan.

Blake Dykes, Columns, Forum

Fitness Friday: Weekend fitness plan

Leave a comment

By Blake Dykes

You managed to make it through the week and maintain your healthy diet (hopefully), so don’t ruin it this weekend at Lanesville Heritage. As appetizing as fried butter may sound, it doesn’t look good on you, trust me. Here are some tips to follow when picking foods at Heritage:

Say no to the food if it’s…

– Fried

– Coated in sugar

– Coated in chocolate

– Has skin

You can eat it if it’s..

– Grilled

– All natural (corn with no butter, fruit, etc.)

– Grilled chicken

If you plan on staying all day pack your own snacks so you won’t be tempted to spend your money on overpriced, heart-attack causing foods. Saying no may not seem worth it at the time, but when Monday rolls around, and you’re trying to zip up your pants, you’ll be thankful that you didn’t eat that funnel cake.

Now as far as workouts go, I’m not going to make one for today, I’m going to give you a little weekend guide.

Friday- Run for three minutes, walk for two. Repeat this 10 times.

Saturday- Pick one of the workouts I have posted, or your own modified version, and complete it one time in the morning and once before you go to bed.

Sunday- Jog (or as fast as you can) up and down a staircase for 10 minutes straight. Then, enjoy the nice weather this weekend is forecasted to have and go on an hour walk at a reasonably fast pace. Bring your friend, mom, or dog. Just go out and get some fresh air. Exercising doesn’t always mean running and doing intense cardio, it’s important that you enjoy what you do so you don’t get burnt out.

Weekend Challenge: Each breakfast you eat this weekend has to have less than three grams of sugar. Most people mistake breakfast as a ticket to eat a dessert in the morning, when in reality it should be the best meal you eat to start your day off right. Natural sugars you don’t have to count, like from fruit and yogurt (only organic cane juice or Stevia though, not plain sugar though). There are plenty of options, I’ve given you recipes to banana bread and oatmeal that each have no sugar, or you could stick to a banana and a greek yogurt, or an egg and whole wheat toast.

Blake Dykes, Columns, Forum

Motivational Monday: healthy recipe and sweaty cardio circuit

Leave a comment

By Blake Dykes

I know today is Monday, and it’s hard to do anything to get yourself to do anything, much less workout, so I have a quote for all the people that are considering skipping today’s exercise:

“You can’t get much done if you only workout on the days when you feel good.” – Jerry West.

With this being said, I hope you all were able to successfully complete the weekend challenge. If not, no worries, there are plenty of other weekends to come.

Today I want to give you guys one of my most favorite recipes. For all you health freaks that have tons of bananas, this one’s for you. Every once in awhile we forget that our bananas are ripe, and then when you go to eat one you realize they’re brown and overly ripe. DON’T  throw them away. Make some low calorie banana bread.

This weekend I was really craving some, so I threw some ingredients together to create this masterpiece:

– three overly ripe bananas

– one cup self-rising flour

– one cup whole wheat flour

– one tsp. baking powder

– ½ tsp. baking soda

– one tsp. cinnamon

– one tsp. ginger

– ¼ cup of Stevia or honey

– four tbs. peanut butter powder

– six tbs. almond milk

-½ cup pecans

one tbs. raw sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, or flax seeds

Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Combine dry ingredients, mix well. Mash up the bananas in a plastic bag and pour in a bowl. Add the almond milk and honey (if you use that sweetener), and mix together. Add pecans.  Mix the wet ingredients with the dry and pour into an olive oil-coated  pan lightly floured. Then sprinkle your choice of seeds on top. Bake for 1 hour. It will be very dense, but you will know when it’s done because the inside should not be too gooey, and the outside should be crunchy. Let the banana bread cool and sweeten before eating it, and remember to not cook it until the entire inside is set because it will set and get firm as it cools, if you cook it too long it will be crunchy bread and no one wants that.

Homemade healthy banana bread.
Homemade healthy banana bread.

Don’t forget to workout today, whether it’s a run, bike ride, or one of the workouts you have, just make sure you get it done.

Sweaty Cardio Circuit

  • two- minute high knees

  • two- minute plank

  • two- minute jump rope

  • two- minute wall sit

  • two-minute mountain climbers

  • two-minute wall pushups

  • two-minute jog in place

  • two- minute squats

After that, do round two with the same exercises, except only for one minute. Then, once you complete that, do the same exercise for 30 seconds.

Tips:

  • Go at your own pace, if you can’t do two- minute mountain climbers at a fast pace, slow it down, but do it for the full amount of time.

  • This is one of those workouts that you don’t get to have a few second break between, you need to go right from one exercise to the next. It’s completely doable, I designed the workout to where after each vigorous cardio exercise there is a more muscle specific exercise.

Be sure to let me know how you liked the banana bread, any suggestions you may have to make it better, and give me a rating from one to 10 on how hard the workout was.

Blake Dykes, Columns, Forum

Fitness Friday: Eating tips and weekend challange

Leave a comment

By Blake Dykes

Instead of giving you a list of recipes and workouts to do, to begin your journey towards a fit lifestyle, I am just going to give you some simple tips you can use to change for the better.

Tips:

  • Know your serving size. Seems self explanatory right? Wrong. For instance, don’t think that because you’re eating Wheat Thins doesn’t mean you’re consuming a low amount of  calories. When you just reach out of the box, which you should NEVER do, you consume on average around four times the recommended serving size. For the reduced fat Wheat Thins the serving size is 14 crackers adding up to be 140 calories. I’m not at all saying these are a bad snack choice, I am just trying to stress that you are probably taking in way more calories than you thought. Portion size is key.
  • Let’s face it, we all have those days where going on a run or doing a hour workout sounds absolutely dreadful. Well, I hate to tell you this, but it’s still not alright to skip on these days; however, I do have a suggestion. Make a list of five to seven exercises that you hate (what I mean by that is exercises that are extremely hard for you and leave you completely out of breath). An example of this list could be:

  • 50 jumping jacks

  • 15 push ups

  • 25 jumping squats

  • 45 crunches

  • One minute running in place

Post this list somewhere that you will see frequently throughout the day, such as in your room, bathroom door, or fridge (maybe that will make you think twice about that midnight snack). Every time you see the list complete the workout. The one I provided burns around 80-100 calories, if you see that eight times a day that’s quite a workout.

  • One thing that always makes me mad is when someone tells me, “You know peanut butter is really high in fat.” Obviously peanut butter is high in fat, but it also fuels your body and contains the right fats. Don’t let some ignorant person persuade you out of eating it. With this being said, most peanut butters contain a little ingredient that has a BIG impact on your body. Hydrogenated oils. There are tons of varieties of hydrogenated oils, but the ones most prevalent in peanut butter are: vegetable, rapeseed, and soybean. These hydrogenated oils thicken your blood, cause  higher cholesterol, and dramatically increases your chance of heart disease. Some other things you should be cautious of when picking out peanut butter is the sugar content. Peanut butter is not made to be sweet, so there should be no added sugar, yet companies continue to slip around 2-6 grams of sugar in per serving (two Tbsp). Not to mention that you should be not taking in no more than 15 grams of sugar daily. With this being said, peanut butter is a simpler item that should be kept with simple ingredients, here are a few brands that keep everything natural with strictly nuts and a hint of salt: KREMA, SMUCKER’S, Naturally More, and my favorite, simple truth organic.

I think that’s just enough amount of things to consider for today, but instead of a workout I am giving you a different assignment.

What I have decided to do is give you a weekend challenge, so from now on every Friday I will be including it in each Fitness Friday column I post, and you can give me feedback on how you do.

Challenge: Don’t eat past 8:30 this weekend. I know weekends exist so that we can stay up until the crack of dawn, but late night cravings are the downfall to healthy eating habits. As tempting as watching TV and munching down a whole bag of chips is, it completely ruins that “flat morning stomach.” You probably aren’t aware that on these late night binges you more than likely consume 500-1000 calories if not more. Besides just the high amount of calories, snacking late at night is hardly ever driven by true hunger, just cravings. If you must eat past 8:30 make it as light as possible, such as some fruit, greek yogurts, or a small handful of sunflower seeds. This sounds a lot easier than it is, but it is a great habit to get into.

Blake Dykes, Forum

Fitness Friday: Healthy recipes and work-outs

1 Comment

By Blake Dykes

When it comes to being fit, many people often think, “I’m going to workout 24/7 and get in the best shape of my life.” But they don’t realize becoming healthy is 20 percent working out and 80 percent eating right.

With this being said, what is eating right? Living off salads, rice cakes, and fish? Wrong. Eating right is a combination having a variety of foods throughout the day, in moderation. Start by eating some of the foods listed below.

  1. Greek yogurt: I prefer Chobani. There are no added sugars,  it is made with real fruits, and extremely lean. Greek yogurt is a great idea for breakfast or a snack. It helps your metabolism get started and burns fat. Make sure that when you look for some you read all the ingredients. Just because it looks healthy doesn’t mean that it is, most yogurt can have up to 28 grams of sugar! You want to buy yogurt sweetened with natural sugars such as cane juice.

  2. Homemade Oatmeal: Sounds complicated but it takes about two minutes to make. Combine ½ to ¾ cup of plain oats, one small packet of Stevia (natural zero calorie sweetener), two tablespoons of  PB2, 1 tsp cinnamon, and ¼ cup of almond milk. Cook for two minutes, and add milk as needed. Normal oatmeal is always one of those things that people get tricked into thinking are healthy. Unfortunately, it is just another one of those foods that gets packed with sugar. By making your own you are cutting out all of the sugar by replacing it with zero calorie Stevia and cinnamon to add to the taste. PB2 is peanut butter powder, which is plain peanuts crushed up without the added oils. So instead of peanut butter’s 180 calories for two Tbsp, PB2 has 45 calories.  Almond milk is always a better alternative than 2% milk because it is much lower in fat. Instead of ⅓ cup for 130 calories, you can have one cup of almond milk for 60. Plus, it tastes much better.

  3. Humus with crackers/carrots: Hummus’s simple ingredients consisting of chickpeas, sesame butter, lemon juice, salt, and garlic or peppers makes it an excellent idea for lunch. Enjoy it with some whole wheat crackers of your choice. If you’re trying to cut out the carbs carrots are also an excellent choice. You can also use humus on your sandwich instead of the other high fat condiments.

  4. Fruit trays:  The more you load on your plate, the more satisfied you’re going to be. So instead of bingeing on a bag of Lay’s, get a good-sized plate and fill it with fruit of your choice. My favorite combination is strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and pineapple. Add ¼ cup of feta cheese (surprisingly excellent with fruit), ¼ cup of raw almonds, pecans, pistachios, or walnuts, then drizzle one Tbs of honey over the tray and enjoy!

  5. Toasted pecans: This is my favorite snack of all times. So maybe raw nuts aren’t really your thing. Which is totally fine, I’m not the biggest fan myself, but, roasting them can give them a whole new taste. Buy a bag of raw nuts (you can find them in the fruit section;however, sometimes those are very expensive, so for a smaller bag you can go in the baking aisle and buy a bag). NOT CANNED. Canned have tons of unhealthy oils that your body doesn’t need. NEVER buy canned nuts, when in doubt buy bags, or just make sure the only ingredient is the nut. Once you have purchased your nuts, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Pour the whole bag onto a pan, coat the pan in a tiny bit of olive oil. I usually just pour some in a napkin and wipe the pan down. Then, sprinkle with salt. Bake them anywhere from 8-15 minutes. It all depends on how you like them, the more you cook them, the darker they become. When they are really dark they taste like popcorn, if you cook them for around eight minutes you can still identify the nut, it just has a marvelous toasted taste. I really like both.

Those are just a few ideas that you can begin to incorporate into your diet.

But don’t get off the computer just yet, you still have some working out to do.

Inner thigh slimmer/glute toner:

  • 20 squats*

  • 40 calf raises

  • 1-minute wall sit

  • 2-minute step ups (you can use a folding chair)

  • 25 plank jacks

  • 15 side lunges (each leg)

  • 15 reverse lunges (each side)*

  • 20 pile squats*

  • 20 donkey kicks (each side)

  • 45 hip lifts

Tips:

  • Using 10-15 pound weights with exercises with the * next to will help maximize your results.

  • Repeat circuit 1-3 times.

  • If you are unfamiliar with a workout you can type in the name on YouTube for the demonstration.

  • Stretch before each workout.


Comment with any questions regarding the workouts or recipes. If you would like to see a workout for a specific muscle, or if you would like to see a certain recipe comment as well.