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Greetings!
I hope you are enjoying a fantastic summer! It will be over before you know it, so soak it in. Take advantage of all of the daylight while it's here.
Following Presidio Fitness' win in 2009 for Best of The Bay in Personal Training, our own Jakki Flaherty was recently recognized as Best Personal Trainer in San Francisco by 7x7 magazine. A big congrats to Jakki!
This month we are launching our first ever group training class. It has taken us a while to come up with a group formula that meets our standards for individualized attention, but we've done it! Our first six-week session sold out in record time, but stay tuned for more. Click here for more information on our boot camp.
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| Are You in an Exercise Rut? | |  Snap out of it! 10 tips to help.
We've all been there - faced with the seemingly daunting task of yet another workout....another visit to the gym. Ugh. We know we'll feel better once we do it, but right now the bed/sofa/glass of wine with a friend seems so much more appealing. Occasionally, it is okay to let your workout slide, but if you find yourself passing up more workouts than you participate in, it's time to re-energize.
1. Switch it up! Are you stuck in the same boring routine?? No wonder you don't want to lace up your sneaks. By doing something different, or trying something new, you will not only be re-engaging your mind, but more importantly, you will be taking your body off auto-pilot and exposing it to new metabolic demands. Take your workout outside. Try a new machine at the gym. If you usually train at the beach, take it to the hills.
2. Try a class. Take a peek at the group exercise schedule at your gym.....stop in on a strength training class, take that yoga class you have been meaning to try, or get your groove on with a little zumba. The group atmosphere can be a motivating, refreshing change.
3. Appeal to your intellectual side: Remind yourself WHY you work out in the first place. Exercise keeps you healthy, maintains your energy, cuts your risk of disease, helps you sleep, boosts your immune system, reduces stress, keeps your fat pants at the back of the closet....the list goes on and on.
4. Set a goal for yourself. Do you have a friend's wedding, a class reunion, or a beach vacation coming up? Or perhaps there is a local 5 or 10K you have always wanted to try. If you have an event to train for or look forward to, you will realize how important every workout is so you'll be more likely to stay on task.
Click here to continue reading |
| The New Science of Fat Loss | |
The Great Aerobic Hoax
By Adam Campbell
For decades, we've been told that the best activity for burning calories and fat is aerobic exercise. In fact, you can practically pinpoint the year this idea started to take hold: 1977. That's when Jim Fixx's The Complete Book of Running was published. This bestseller popularized the notion of running to improve health and lose weight, and it's widely credited with kicking off the jogging boom of the 1980s. Hundreds of studies since then have reported that aerobic exercise offers many benefits, from improving markers of heart-disease risk to coping with mental stress to enhancing cognitive function. That's all good. But if you're looking to shed fat, the newest weight-loss research will tell you to look elsewhere for your exercise routine. "It's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy," says Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., an exercise and nutrition scientist at the University of Connecticut. "Any type of exercise burns calories. So if you're told that running is ideal and you start dropping pounds once you take it up, then you have no reason to believe otherwise."
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| Healthy & Delicious Recipe | |  Quinoa and Lentil Salad
Courtesy of Gavan Murphy
1 cup lentils*
1 cup quinoa
3 tbsp white-wine vinegar(may substitute balsamic vinegar for more flavor)
2 tsp salt
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup fresh mint, finely chopped (or other herb of your choice)
2 tbsp lemon zest
S&P to taste
DIRECTIONS: Begin by rinsing the lentils under cold water. In a small saucepan add enough water to cover the lentils by 2 inches, add 1 tsp salt and simmer until tender but not falling apart, about 15 minutes.*
Meanwhile, place quinoa, 2 cups water and 1 tsp salt in another saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, cover and cook until all water is absorbed, about 15 minutes, approx.
When lentils are done, drain well. Remove hot lentils to a large mixing bowl and stir in 1 tbsp of vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Cool lentils completely, stirring occasionally.
When quinoa is cooked, drain any excess liquid. Cool and add to lentils in mixing bowl.
In a small bowl whisk together remaining 2 tbsp vinegar, oil, S&P to taste. Combine lentils, quinoa and dressing. Add in mint and zest. Mix well. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
*To save time, buy pre-cooked lentils from Trader Joe's |
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Stay healthy and strong!
See you in the gym,
Megan, Jakki, Jesse, Tracey & Ronan
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