Day 8/21- Dig Deep Play Hard Challenge

Day  8 - How do you feel??? Are you feeling in balance, rested, cleaner?  Some of you have shared incredible results and changes thus far. 

Check these out:
Sarah Woldemar Tama This looks like an awesome workout. If I already did my HIIT workout for today, but not this one, can I modify the challenge and do this tomorrow? Or should I just wait and do this one again when you have us do it on Thursday? Awesome videos! I am feeling them, for sure!

Jennifer Ann Serr I think we did some of this workout this morning in your special free class and some of it on Monday in our PFPDX class. I definitely feel good, but my thighs are a teensy weensy bit shakey and feeling the workout. I can't believe I've worked out in some way 6 out of the last 7 days. I have never in my lifetime ever done that and additionally, tracking all my food on Live Strong. One of the great benefits to tracking food is that it takes time and is kind of a pain, so you want to eat fewer foods and better foods so that you don't have to track as much. I'm already feeling firmer, stronger and more confident after a month of PFPDX and 1 week in the challenge. Yahoo! oh and did I mention that I found my core? Yes!

Donna Wyatt Thanks so much for this Erin. I've found myself asking questions about what's "clean" and this really helped. It's not as restrictive as I thought. 

Isabelle Wettergren Thanks Erin, just what I needed! Been putting my workouts on the back burner for 10 months. Feeling heavy, I slow jogged my way to HBC, lifted for 30 min and slower jogged back. Thank you! 

Day 8: 
1. Do Workout from Tuesday, Day 6.  It is linked here.   
2. Get 8 hours sleep. If you can't be in bed by 9:30, than be in bed by 10 pm and wake up  6am earliest.  You want at least 8 hours of sleep.  Sleep is integral in weight loss and restoring energy and muscle strength!!! 
3. Eat CLEAN! Log your food on Livestrong.com.  Today I will be going over every food log, as I will be regularly. 
4. Hour of Cardio.
5. Prep for No sugar and No wheat for Five days.  Friday - Tuesday.  Day 9-13.  Prep you for feeling GREAT on July 4th. 
6. JOURNAL!!  LOOK BACK TO DAY ONE AND DAY TWO- compare how you feel. 
7. Write down 5 changes you have felt thus far, and 5 physical goals you have for yourself. 

YOU CAN DO THIS!! Remember, we are all in this together and can help support each other.  Comment on Facebook, email me questions, and make sure to have FUN! 


Off to the pool for a swim date with a friend. Hour of cardio and my strength workout after.  Rock on Power Fitness PDX'ers and Friends! 
Cheers-
Erin

 

Clean Eating- How you will eat for 21 days...and the rest of your life

Clean eating isn't just a way to eat, it is a lifestyle. You want to live CLEAN, and eat all food right from the source. Truly, it is that simple.  You want your meals to be made with 5 ingredients or less. Use spices to enhance flavor, not lots of butter and added fats. Think of Clean Eating as a means to eat how we should...eat real food that is not full of names we can't pronounce. 

There are a number of proven benefits of Clean Eating:
1.    Lower Body Fat
2.    Increase Muscle Mass
3.    Improve Energy
4.    Decreased risk of types of diseases like diabetes, stroke, heat disease and cancers
6.    Less consumption of pesticides, artificial food additives, and preservatives sodium and sugar
7.    Eating Clean is Eating Green: the foods you preference in Clean Eating lifestyle are minimally processed, using less energy and produce less waste than highly-processed food
8.    Less expensive and locally supports the economy. Clean Eating involves lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish. Local farmers markets are key to buying food in season, thus helping the economy you live in.
9.    Sustainable. Unlike fad diets, Clean Eating is a holistic approach to eating that a person can practice their entire life. It is not a die, but how you eat to live.
10. Food is Fuel, and Clean Eating helps you be fueled with the most nutrient dense food possible.

The challenge of TIME is often the biggest obstacle. But this is where To-Do list come into play. Incorporate them into your daily life, especially on weekends.  Use Sundays as food prep days.  After a few weeks you’ve altered some of your cravings to adjust to living and eating clean…since it is what your body needs.  Try to do your food prep, plan and shop on the same days of the week.  Additionally, you can journal to meal plan.  Create a Clean Eating Journal with recipes, what works for you and doesn’t, shopping lists, and also include photos of yourself doing the active events Clean Eating gives you energy for.  Talk with your friends who eat clean and ask to share recipes, ideas and also advice on what works for them.

Food Choices For EATING CLEAN!

Non fat Milk – Organic preferred
Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt- Trader Joes is less $
Soy Milk, Rice Milk and/or Coconut Milk
Avacado!!
Edamame
SPINACH!!! Add it to everything
Sun Dried Tomatoes
Coconut Oil
Fresh Fruit In Season (try to go local and Farmers Market, Market Hall, Alameda Market Place, Whole Foods)
Fresh Vegetables (same as above- from the farm to your table)
Salsa- make some of your own with tomatoes, cilantro, scallion, lime juice, red pepper, salt, pepper, and chili flakes (add pineapple or mango to flavor it too)
Eggs
Firm Tofu
Whole Wheat Noodles (elbow/fusseli/spaghetti)
Lemons and Limes
Nuts- Almonds, Walnuts, Peanuts (all unsalted and without sugars or seasonings)
Olive Oil
Whole Wheat Bread – enriched with fiber and protein a plus
Spinach wrap breads/whole wheat wrap bread
Lundenberg rice cakes
Tea
Whole Grain Crackers- Kashi TLC and Garden of Eaten are good
Whole Wheat Pretzels- Trader Joes or Honey Gold are fine
Gluten Free Options of Rice Crackers, Tempeh crackers, Brown Rice Snacks
Natural Peanut Butter- Trader Joes/Adams
Natural Soy Nut Butter- Trader Joes good option
Whole Fruit for jam (sliced strawberries, mashed blackberries, banana)
Hummus – make own with garbanzos, timarac, cayan pepper, lime juice, olive oil, cilantro
honey
Beans- Black beans, Garbanzo Beans, Kidney Beans, Fat Free Refried Beans
Cheese- String Cheese, goat cheese, feta, swiss --- all have less fat than Gouda/Cheddar/Brie. Try for 7 grams or less per serving.
Lean Deli Meats—Turkey & Chicken
Trader Joes Vegetable soups- Tomato/squash/pepper
Fresh Fish – Salmon, Mahi Mahi, Ahi, Trout
Shrimp
Basil, Cilantro, Rosemarry, Thyme
Seasonings!!
Balsamic Vinegar
Dried Fruit- Apricots, Cranberries, Raisins, Apple, Figs, Mango
If you have bars – Remember 5 ingredients or less--- KIND and LARA Bars are good options
WATER!!  100 oz daily!!

Ways to incorporate vegetables into your diet:
Add them to your breakfast, lunch and snacks!  Add Spinach and tomatoes to eggs, cucumber and bell peppers to sandwiches, chard and scallions to frittatas, fresh mushrooms to tomato soup, lettuce wrapped around bell pepper slices with goat cheese, bell peppers baked and stuffed with barley/basil/sundried tomatoes and smidge olive oil.

Snack ideas:
•    Goat Cheese Medallion and Sliced Pear or Apple
•    Fiber enriched Lundenburg Brown Rice Cake dipped in 1 tb peanut butter, apple slices, cinnamon
•    carrots, cucumber, bell pepper, broccoli with 2 tb hummus
•    ½ cup nonfat greek yogurt with 1 cup berries and 1 tb sliced almonds/1 TB Almond Butter or walnuts
•    ½ PB & Fruit wrap – half wrap with 1 tb PB & sliced strawberries


Dinner ideas:
Frittata over spinach salad
BBQ Vegetables & Fish
Rissoto with tofu and grilled vegetables
Fish Tacos
Grilled kabobs, fish burgers, corn salad
Peanut Veggie Stir Fry
Pumpkin Curry Soup with Tofu

Please contact to request any recipe- powerfitnesspdx@gmail.com

For additional questions, ideas and thoughts, please contact Erin Kreitz Shirey and
Power Fitness PDX – www.powerfitnesspdx.com  and powerfitnesspdx@gmail.com 





Food References for Clean Eating:
Online Resources:
The Gracious Pantry - www.thegraciouspantry.com
Clean Eating Magazine - www.cleaneatingmag.com
Eat Clean Diet – www.eatcleandiet.com


* Many thanks to Sandra Koulourides, MS, RD of Fuel Plus Fitness, Clean Eating Magazine for and Danielle Paskins of West Linn Fitness for some additional food choices and ideas. Refer to them in addition to Power Fitness PDX, they are fantastic resources.

Have fun and be creative,  YOU know the rules of Clean Eating, YOU know what to buy, YOU know you have to plan your choices...so now DO IT!  YOU CAN and YOU WILL feel incredible from the inside out.

21 Day Challenge

21 Day Dig Deep Challenge

Happy Day 1/21 of the 21 day Challenge. How are you feeling about this adventure?  I am excited, and eager to truly tune into every one of my own body's needs.  I am excited to push my limits and also to push my comfort zone into a better zone for myself, which will transpire to be a better trainer and coach for you.  I type with Emerson cuddling up alongside me, on this windy Summer morning.  What happened to our sunshine??
Some questions for you to get started:

1. What are your goals the next 21 days? Nutrition, Fitness, Energy, Balance, Life
2. How are you feeling NOW?  Do you wake up and feel bound with energy, or are you sluggish? 
3. How much do you exercise daily? Weekly? 
4. How often do you see your friends, and talk to them on the phone? NOT text and email, but actual conversation hearing the octaves in their voices.
5. How do you take time to step back and reset your inner clock? 

My own goals stem from feeling in a rut. I need to get some added energy again, and feel the incredible endorphin rush from working out.  Everyone needs to reset their inner selves at times, and seeing that it is my personal time, and from what I have witnessed teaching the PFPDX'ers, it seems it is many person's "re-set" time too. Therefore, we will all Dig DEEP together!  We will push limits, eat clean, get sleep, take care of our needs, and at each day's end have no regrets. Instead we will have THANKS for digging deep to challenge our comfort zones, our body's ability to push itself, our inner souls ability to be fulfilled and be thankful for eating food to fuel our actions to Play HARD.

21 Day Rules:

1. Get to bed by 10:30 pm nightly (10:00pm is even better).
2. Drink 100 ounces of water/day. Tea does count. 
3. Eat 2 servings of vegetables at lunch and dinner, 1 serving of lean protein at lunch and dinner.
4. Do at least 60 minutes of cardio exercise daily. 
5. Do the strength workouts posted, in ADDITION to what you are currently doing.
6. Log all of your meals and implement the daily goals put out there by me, Coach Erin Kreitz Shirey.
7. Keep a journal and record everything. Carry it with you- in your briefcase, purse, etc.  LOG daily To-Do list, all food, all moments of clarity, all workouts, all times of bed nightly.
8. Log all food in Livestrong.com and join the DigDeepPlayHard Group. The link is here: http://www.livestrong.com/groups/group/digdeepplayhards-group/
9. Tell your friend who you see daily what you are doing. Keep him/her accountable with you of being supportive. When you say a goal outloud, you MAKE it happen! Hence this Challenge!!
10.  HAVE FUN and pat your back for making a change right now.

Now, the video that was posted on Facebook, and is for YOU to motivate you to get moving.
Click the YouTube Video :
You Tube Video #1
** For whatever reason, the video is not wanting to embed in blogger.  Please click the link to watch it.

Report back to me- email me if you are going your challenge alongside me. I am excited to share this journey with you!!!


Cheers-

Coach Erin Kreitz Shirey

Adventurous Summer

Fun ADVENTURES to Blast your SUMMER

Summer days are here again, and we want them to never end!   

Go for an adventure run... in the MUD!

Summer is here and the days are long, goals are big, and weeks seem to be packed full of trips and family visits. Before you realize it, Labor Day arrives after what seems to feel like Summer just began. 

  

Don't let that happen this year...don't miss out on the Summer fun-ventures, but embrace them and the long, sun-filled days! Try the following ideas to make this Summer the best and most active one yet. 

Dig deep. PLAY HARD!

1. Create an ADVENTURE BOX with your family and friends.
If you are an empty nester, singleton, family of 10, or newly married do this activity. Take a shoe box and decorate it with pictures, postcards, words and phrases for places, events and ideas that intrigue you. ON different pieces of paper, write down activities, goals, concerts and classes you want to do.  ie: "Go for trail run in Santa Cruz Mountains and then play at the Boardwalk at night",  or  "Camp in Lake Tahoe". Put all the paper slips in the box. Take your calendar and pick out 1 day/week as your adventure day. Each person gets to pick from the box various adventures and add them to the calendar. By Summer's end, everyone will have completed various adventures together and created treasured memories. 

2. Plan Races and Workouts with Friends who don't live by you.

You tell your best friend who lives across the Bay that you want to see him, but long days at work and life get in the way of meeting up. Why not use Summer as your time to train together weekly for a race? Or set a bike date and  meet up in San Francisco for a ride? Use the longer days to make a mid-week training session happen and put it on your calendar...now.

3. Get outside your COMFORT Zone and REGISTER for a NEW RACE.

You have talked about wanting to get outside your comfort zone for a while. NOW is your time. Get dirty, push your limits, see what you are truly MADE of! Each morning you blast through the hour or burpees, sprints and plyometrics training hard. YOU are not just training for life, but training for the adventurous life available to you at your fingertips. Meaning, the Bay Area has some of the most incredible kayaking adventures, mud runs, and urban obstacle challenges in the country. Hop online and register for one now!   

 
Adventure Out- California's Leader in Outdoor Adventure
Outback Adventures 
Envirosports

  

© 2012 Erin Kreitz Shirey- When not teaching Power Fitness PDX, writing fitness articles or creating advneures to conquer, you can find Coach Erin Kreitz Shirey doing cannonballs with her kids in the swimming pool. To reach her visit powerfitnesspdx.com or 503.703.1269.

Power Fitness PDX Rockstar- Donna rockin' her new self in Maui!

Many people start Power Fitness PDX for various reasons.  One PFPDX'er, Donna, has grown exponentially. Not only has she found an inner strength, she has realized that because you are in your 50's it doesn't mean you have to give up on "you".  Donna shared her story, and I hope she may help inspire one of you to hop on a bike and ride to the top of the Haleakala Crater too! 

Cheers- Coach Erin Kreitz Shirey

I came to Power Fitness PDX and Erin at a time that I felt I had hit the wall.  Even though I was working out daily with an elliptical and spin bike and doing some light weights my weight loss had stalled and I didn’t feel like I was getting the results for the effort that I was putting in.  I found myself using the excuse “you are almost 53-lighten up.”  But somehow I knew I was capable of more and I absolutely wanted more.

In my two months with Erin I have learned that while I was working out I wasn’t pushing myself to my limits.  Erin has taught me that its OK to go to a level of discomfort in my workout-I am not going to get hurt, I am going to get stronger!  After 3 months I am down 16 lbs and 12 inches.  When I started I could barely hold plank for 20 secs, now I can hold a perfect plank for over a minute.

Doing burpees on vacation!

I had a trip to Maui coming up and I was worried that I would backslide so prior to my trip I made a daily exercise plan and I packed my bands and my jump rope.  The cottage we were staying at was new to me so I didn’t know what the area was going to look like-I hit the jackpot! The grounds were beautiful with lots of paths and grassy areas so I could do my workouts outdoor and with some privacy.  I set up stations-jump rope for two minutes in the parking lot, run back to the lanai and perform squats and overhead press with the bands, set the timer for an 11 minute run. I pulled out the ipad and watched Erin’s videos-I changed it up each day and since I had a pool not 20 steps from my door I even did some running and swimming in the pool.

On my 53rd birthday we got up at 1 am and drove to Haiku where we joined others for a trip up to Haleakala Crater to watch sunrise and then ride bikes down the crater back to Haiku. This has been something that I have wanted to do since I first went to Maui at the age of 18 and hiked Haleakala. It was definitely a bucket list event for me!  The bike ride downhill was a scream-literally 30 mphs screaming Weeeeeeee!

On the ride down there were three hills that we had to climb and I was worried.  I’ve always had difficulty riding hills and I would have to get off and walk the hill, which always made me feel terrible.  Well I rode up each of those hills with no problem even beating others to the top! On one hill I almost stepped off the bike but I heard Erin’s voice “keep going and going and going.” 

Donna- strong and active!! Way to go DONNA!!

It felt great to be able to do all the things I wanted to do on vacation; scuba, the bike ride, and feeling pretty good about how I looked in a swimsuit and in this little dress that I bought special for our luau dinner.  The early mornings, the bugs, the sweat and yes even the burpees have all been worth it.  Thank you Erin for challenging me to find the power in ME and I look forward to just getting better, and better and making this year the best yet! 

Sincerely- 

Donna Wyatt